Mended Wing
by Sailorcelestial
Summary: Reposting of an old story. Sequel to Broken Wing. Time crosses again, this time with results no one could foresee, not even Sailorpluto. In progress. NEW CHAPTER AS OF SEPTEMBER, 2011! With update on my writing status for this and AQD.
1. Prologue

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Welcome all to a brand new story in the Wing Trilogy. As you all know, Broken Wing was the first story in this set of three, and now we have moved on to the second: Mended Wing. Mended Wing will reverse the roles and take the GBoys from their time and plunk them down in Usagi's. It is seven years after Broken Wing for Usagi, and eight for the five pilots (that way they'll all be the same age, except Trowa, who will now be one year older than Usagi). In this story you will find the answers to some of your questions left over from Broken Wing, and may even find some new hope for a broken heart. But no promises. My thanks go out to **Marika Webster**, who has stuck by me in some of the most difficult and trying times of my life and, like Duo, will run and hide but will never lie, even if the truth will hurt. Thanks to **Girl-chama** (aka Sailorgundam), whose rigid and totally unattainable expectations for fanfiction will make me strive for a greater level of excellence in Mended Wing. Thanks to **Rashaka-chan**, who has disappeared to parts unknown, but to whom I still owe a great debt for helping me to finish Broken Wing. Thanks to someone who may not be reading this, but to whom I owe a debt for showing me how strong I really am, even if they did it by being a completely heartless human being. And thanks to the rest of you who are coming back to read this, if you are, if you've been patient through Wayward.

Disclaimer: Oy, here we go again. Neither Gundam Wing nor Sailormoon belong to me. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW::sobs::

**Mended Wing – Prologue**

Time. Time had no meaning. Time slid by in ever confusing tendrils. No longer could she read them like a book, cover to cover and with knowledge of every smallest word. That ability had long been stripped from her by this cold, dark, and misty place. Oh, she was used to darkness and mist, but the cold . . . the cold drained her. Even with the protection provided her by her station, the cold still managed to seep under her flesh. A chill had carved its way underneath her flimsy protection of skin and curled there for a long sleep, settled for a stay. After so long in the cold, in the darkness and mist with no hope of ever leaving, even the diaphanous fog became hostile. White fingers caressed her face in deceptively gentle arcs, and the iciness held within formed itself into chips of sharp chill, cold made solid. She could feel the blood arching down over her cheeks and wanted to scream against the injustice done to her, to this once proud Guardian.

Wait . . . that wasn't blood. No. Just her tears.

* * *

Meioh Setsuna shuffled her bags from one arm to the other, her newly freed hand fumbling with her keys. Her stern face wrinkled just the slightest as those jangling pieces of metal fell to the ground. She sighed and bent her knees carefully, trying to pick them up both without spilling the contents of her bags and without giving the street a flash show of what lay beneath her mauve skirt. Her foot banged against the door and in a moment it opened, a pair of socked feet sliding into view.

"Having trouble?" the laughing voice of Tenoh Haruka glided down to her, and Setsuna scowled tightly.

"Just a little. Do you think you could exert yourself enough to help me?"

"I guess," the woman chuckled and bent down, having no skirts to worry about or bags. A deft hand grabbed up the keys as Setsuna straightened herself. Groaning as her back complained, Setsuna reached out a hand for her keys and glanced up with annoyed maroon eyes.

A skull face stared back at her. Black-boned, grinning, blue fire literally burning in empty sockets, the skull chuckled in Haruka's voice. Setsuna stumbled backwards, right foot dangling from the edge of the top step, eyes wide. As she looked on, the ocular fire flared, spreading out and over the entire skull-face. Engulfed in blue-tinged flame, the skull floated towards her, no longer connected to Haruka's body. Setsuna gave a cry and flung her arms in front of her, discarding her precious shopping bags.

"Ssssetssssunaaaaa . . ."

Horrible. Corny. Something out of an old B movie at best. Yet somehow that keening, calling voice, hissing out her name, terrified the Guardian like nothing else in her long, long life ever had. There was a promise there, a promise and a threat, so closely related they intertwined, became indistinguishable from each other. The voice called to her again, called through the blackness zooming in over her eyes, calling through the hum of something else, something faintly familiar but infinitely unrecognizable. Hands grabbed at her and she fought, kicking, clawing, pounding with closed fists. She screamed as loud as she could for no other reason than that by some miracle her screams might force this evil away.

"Setsuna-san!"

Sharp, not hissing. Hands shaking, but not grabbing. Blackness because her eyes were closed. The hum became that of passing cars. Setsuna dared to open her gaze and found Haruka staring at her, intense worry blazing n the other woman's eyes. Those strong hands grasped her shoulders. Behind the blonde stood a wide-eyed Michiru and behind her still, Hotaru, clinging to Michiru's skirts as she had done when a second child.

"H-Haruka-san?"

"What happened?"

"I . . . I don't know . . ."

* * *

Quatre tugged at his sleeves. He ran a hand through his hair, mussing the perfectly styled white-blonde strands. He played with the pen that should have been signing form after form after form. Still the uneasiness, that strange cloud of anxiety, hung over him and refused to let him continue with his day or his work. At last he gave in to it and pushed away his stack of papers, rising from the mahogany desk and shaking his head.

_What's wrong?_ he asked himself as he approached the window. Outside a sheet of rain formed a grey curtain between him and the capitol of L4. Quatre stuffed his hands in his pockets and unfocused his gaze, purposefully letting himself sink into that place between reality and dreams, where sanity is only a cloak and the insane is easily deciphered. In that in-between place he found only more confusion, more anxiety, and a bleak darkness hovering about everything. Pulsating, clawing, waiting, reaching out for the perfect time to strike, the darkness paused to feel him watching. Quatre fully expected an attack. He received only the dismal cackling of an amused . . . thing? Entity . . . .

With a blink he found himself snapped back into full reality, staring into the reflection of his wide, fear-filled eyes. His own face, the hard-lined face of a grown man, gazed out at him with a stricken expression.

Quatre turned away from the window and its water trails. Within his pockets his fingers clenched into fists.

_Setsuna, for the first time in eight years I wish you were here._

Eight years since the war, since he and his friends had met Usagi and that mysterious Guardian of Time, Setsuna. Quatre sighed and smiled a bit as he remembered, not for the first time, the great smiling face of Tsukino Usagi. They all owed her for the bond of friendship that saved their lives, and in smaller, individual ways as well. He owed her for restoring Trowa's memories, without which the taller boy might never have remembered Quatre, and they would not know the love they now shared. Trowa thanked her every day for bringing him back from death in time to confess that love and share a life with his koi. Quatre's face flushed as he thought on that, even though he was alone in his office.

Hiiro owed her for his looser emotions, and the close bond he shared with Vice Foreign Minister Darlian. The Arabian, no longer so little, pondered that relationship and wondered exactly how much there was there.

A similar debt hounded Wufei, who would never admit to owing anything to a "baka onna" as he had taken to calling women not long after pulling the phrase from Hiiro. Nor would he admit to what they all knew; he had cradled a small crush for Usagi up until at least a year after she left. Married now, to the former Alliance Major Sally Po, Wufei also owed to the bright blonde girl a debt for softer emotions.

Duo. Quatre sighed as his thoughts turned to the braided one. Unlike the Chinese man, Duo's feeling for her had been much stronger. _Still are,_ the CEO reminded himself. Once the ladies man, Duo still flirted with women, but never took any of them seriously. He seemed in constant wait for the one girl he'd loved, but could never have. Destiny deprived him of that happiness, but Duo clung to a desperate, unspoken hope that perhaps one day his wish might come true if he only prayed enough. He owed that to Usagi: stronger faith.

He blinked himself from contemplation as the old fashioned audio phone rang. Polished shoes made no sound against the carpet as he returned to the desk and deftly picked up the receiver he took so much pleasure in.

"Quatre Raberba Winner."

"Quatre."

He smiled at the sound of Trowa's voice on the other end. The leather chair squeaked beneath his weight as he settled into it and prepared to answer.

"Quaaaaatreeeee . . ."

Mist seeped from the tiny holes dotted over the mouthpiece, flowed around him and formed a gossamer spiderweb. Quatre choked and pushed at the fog with both hands. Darkness rose from his stomach, a fear born from that deep anxiety and the terrible knowledge that what he dreaded was coming to pass. The misty web closed in, tightening about him and for something so airy it felt like solid fire against his skin and he screamed for Trowa, for Rassid, for anyone to hear him but none did. Around his retrained body the web spread and created a thin cocoon. Then it vanished. Quatre with it.

"Quatre?" Trowa's voice filtered from the dropped phone. "Quatre?!? QU—"

End Mended Wing Prologue.


	2. Chapter 1

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Hi all! I hope that you're enjoying Mended Wing so far. I know I'm enjoying writing it! I'm going to have some MAJOR fun, and those of you who read Wayward know what I get like when I have fun, HAHAHAHA!!! But don't worry, I won't have THAT much fun. Almost, but not quite. Hehe. Let's see, who do I have to thank now? **Marika Webster** for being such a good friend, even if she hasn't posted chapter 9 of Rare Are These Things yet. PWP! Oh… there it is! **Girl-chama** for just being so cool! You're on vacation now and I MISS YOU!!**Usa-chan** just because! **Fuuzaki-chan** cause we live in the same city!! YAAAH!! **Lissa** for being completely and totally ruthless! HAHA! **Rashaka-chan** for making it back from your mystical sabbatical around the world::huggles:: **SilverRay** for being my first email reviewer! Yay! Thankies, thankies, thankies!**Polgara** for asking me to host BW on her site! That makes me feel so loved and stuff! And to everyone who's supporting me in my personal boycotting of It's just my own personal crusade, and it won't get anything accomplished, but at least I won't be dealing with THEM anymore!

**Disclaimers:** I don't own GW and I don't own SM. I don't own any of the characters in this fic so far::sniffles:: I'm using asterisks () to denote Japanese speech. Arigatou.

**Mended Wing – Chapter One**

Duo found himself lodged in a tree. In a very uncomfortable tree. Legs and arms straddling a rather large branch, Duo had to push himself up carefully to avoid damaging a sensitive area. As it was his back creaked upon rising. Geez, You'd think I was 80 years old or something! He rubbed his head, which ached steadily. Not a pain as if he'd struck the tree, but a subtle and continual throb, like a headache, but somehow not the same either. He had the overwhelming sense of having done something in one leap that should be done in process, of skipping over some middle step that really shouldn't be skipped.

"Kuso!" came a familiar voice from below him. Duo balanced himself precariously on his branch in order to look downwards. There, attempting to extricate himself from clothesline and tree branches, Hiiro Yui cursed, and not under his breath.

"Hiiro!"

"Dammit, Maxwell, what have you done know?!?"

"Wufei!" Duo looked up. On the branch directly above him sat Trowa, perfectly at home. Above him, dressed in what looked to be a very expensive business suit, Quatre clung to his own limb and looked for all the Earthsphere like at any moment he might scream for his Manguenacs. And on the highest branch, sporting his usual white silk and wielding his ever present katana, Wufei hung by his pants. Duo blinked. Somehow the idea of Wufei having his katana with him even in such a compromising position seemed right. Which made his flushed, near-panicked face all the more hilarious.

"Maxwell! Stop laughing and GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!!!"

Trowa helped him. Quatre still hung on like a cat and Hiiro hadn't quite managed to get untangled. Duo met the acrobat near Wufei's position, unable to climb any further for lack of room.

"I'll . . . uh . . . get him unhooked," Trowa fought valiantly against laughter in order to spare what little tatters remained of his Chinese friend's dignity. "When he falls, you catch his arm."

"Barton?!? Shouldn't YOU be catching me?!? YOU'RE the on in the circus!"

"Hey, Wu-man, dontcha trust me?" Duo asked through a snigger. He had no qualms about battering Wufei's pride, knowing that the katana-waver always had some held back for emergencies.

"Shut up, MaxWEEELL!" The man screamed as Trowa unhooked his pants from the branch stump that they had snagged on and he fell. Duo caught him deftly, a few years of lost practice meaning nothing to the braided one. Somehow he thought any one of them could perform the maneuver just as skillfully no matter how much time may pass. He swung Wufei so the other caught a lower limb and landed on it in graceful style.

In a few minutes Trowa, Duo, and Wufei managed to pry Quatre away from his branch and untangle Hiiro. Down on the ground, they noticed the world looked much different than they were used to.

"We're definitely on the Earthsphere," Quatre mused aloud, looking up into the expansive blue sky. Duo had the urge to comment on the observation skills of their daring Captain Obvious. "I can't tell exactly where though. Too many trees blocking my way."

At that moment a couple walked by, dark skinned with the characteristics of the Japanese people.

"We're in Japan," Duo stated cheerfully, grinning as he stuck his hands in his pockets. Quatre glared at him, annoyance sparking from his blue eyes. "Hey, it was just an observation." He neglected to mention what a painful observation it was, knowing that Usagi had once walked in Japan. Oh, he knew she still existed, but that was a world separate from his own, one in which he did not belong. He never visited Serenity or her happy family.

"Their dialect . . ." Quatre's eyes narrowed as they followed the young couple, the Arabian obviously straining to pick up their conversation.

"Don't you know it's rude to stare?"

"Shut up, Maxwell."

Duo, ever the mature adult, made a face at Wufei and turned back to Quatre with a witty phrase in mind. However he discovered that the blonde had moved on, following the two people and listening to their conversation. The four remaining blinked, looked at each other, then scuttled to follow their smaller friend. Actually, Quatre wasn't much smaller than them anymore. In eight years he'd grown somewhat and almost managed to reach Duo in height. As it was, Quatre already stood over Wufei, who would probably never be much taller than he had been at fifteen. Duo snickered at that thought and received a withering look from the Chinese man, as if the dark-eyed one knew what crossed his mind.

"Trowa!" Quatre called back, rushing them along with a waving hand. "Trowa, listen, do you hear it?!?" The blue-eyed boy- Duo still thought of him as a boy, and probably always would- peered up at his koi and bounded up and down on his toes. His new and polished leather shoes creaked as he did. Trowa narrowed his eyes and listened, even as the conversation died. The couple looked nervously behind them, noticing the five men who seemed to be stalking them. Duo waved and the woman giggled, said something in Japanese, and the man dragged her away. "Do you hear it?" Quatre asked again, and Trowa nodded, visible green eye open wide.

"What?" Duo glanced between the two. "Keeping secrets isn't nice, you know."

"We're here!" Quatre clapped his hands together and, to everyone's surprise, did a little dance of pure joy. Even Trowa arched a brow.

"Would either of you care to tell us exactly where 'here' is?" Hiiro crossed his arms and stared at Quatre in a style faintly reminiscent of the old Death Glare. It seemed that one thing, at least, lost some power over the years. Duo no longer felt like running at the first sight of that gaze.

"Tokyo!" Quatre squealed and ran off again, Trowa sighing and following. Duo, Hiiro, and Wufei shared a communal confused glance. The braided one watched as slowly, both of his companions' eyes widened as they came to understand what their not-so-little friend meant.

"Tokyo!" Wufei repeated, and Hiiro nodded.

"What about it?" Duo asked, looking back and forth between their glowing, enlightened faces. Neither deigned to share with him, only turned and began walking after Trowa and Quatre. Duo grumbled something under his breath about damn dirty stoics, shoved his hands in his pockets, and followed at a reasonable distance behind Wufei and his katana.

"I can't believe it!" Quatre was screeching from a good twenty feet ahead, "I can't believe we're in Tokyo and that we're going to see her again!"

Her? Her who?

Hiiro and Wufei looked over their shoulders at him, snickered, and looked away. Duo blinked, and not for the first time since arriving in this strange place. The image of Hiiro AND Wufei snickering simply did not make sense in his mind. Something certainly seemed rotten in the state of Denmark. Well, Japan. And not rotten really, just extremely strange. Duo sighed, glad he hadn't said that line aloud.

At length the five of them reached an end to the lines of trees, grass, and lake just in time to step onto the busy, crowded sidewalk of the city. The braided one realized that they must have been lucky enough to land in the park. He thanked God for such small favors. The thought came to him, insidious the way thoughts come, and he wondered if maybe it wasn't God he had to thank for that, but someone else. For the life of him, however, he couldn't figure out who it could be if not God, so he stopped straining what little of his brain remained and settled himself for being contentedly confused. Sooner or later one of his friends would take pity on him and tell him what was going on. He hoped. Surely Quatre would, at least.

All about them a sea of babbling voices pounded at his ears, all of them speaking that elusive language of Japanese. Every so often he caught a word that sounded vaguely familiar, or the snatch of a suffix, but never enough to be sure it was something he actually knew. It seemed he would have to rely on the others, he being the only of the five who never learned another language besides his own. The only phrases he remembered from Usagi were "gomen," "hai," and "ja ne!" And of course the suffixes; she'd been so adamant about those suffixes. He smiled a bit as he remembered the first time he'd dared to call her just Usagi, without—

"USAGI!"

The four turned back to look at him, all wearing annoyingly amused smiles. Especially Wufei, who would never let him live this delayed realization down. Duo grumbled, feeling heat rise to his face. Eight years and he still hadn't lost his designation as the ditzy one.

"How old is she now?" Hiiro asked the pertinent question, for in knowing her current age they would know where to find her.

"Well, eight years would make her twenty-four, one year older than us."

"But what if it hasn't been eight years for her?" Wufei responded to Quatre's evaluation. "I mean, what if we've been put into a time when she's thirty? Or even before she met us?" The Chinese man shrugged and gestured out to the bustling city. "There's an approximately fifty year span in which the cities of Earth all stayed practically the same. We could be anywhere within that fifty years. Usagi may not even be born yet."

"But," Duo stepped forward, "why would we be sent back before she was born, or for that matter, before she knew us? This has to be Setsuna's doing, and for her to send us back only to not meet Usagi . . . well, wouldn't it be a little pointless?"

He truly couldn't stand the 'will miracles never cease?' expressions that crossed all of their faces each time he said something that made sense. When did it become so amazing that he might say something intelligent every once in a while? Have I really been giving off that sort of aura all of these years?

"Well," he said, starting out onto the street, "I guess the first place to look would be the University, right? Maybe she's still in classes there." He didn't even stop to see that look again.

* * *

"Tsukino Usagi." Quatre told the woman behind the desk. Hiiro leaned backwards on the counter, crossing his arms as he waited for the reply. Students all around them laughed, ate, and hurried to class.

"Gomen nasai," the woman said, "but we're not allowed to give out that information."

"We only want to know if she's enrolled here," Quatre continued, gazing at her with large, pleading blue eyes. Hiiro felt the urge to snort at such a blatantly pleading use of looks. It could almost be considered flirting, were Quatre not very much of a different persuasion.

"I've already told you, we cant--"

"Look," Duo exploded, pushing past the blonde and slamming his hands on the desk, "I don't know what you're saying, but I know you're causing problems! Quatre, tell her that if she doesn't tell us what we want to know now, I'll—"

"Is there a problem here?"

Hiiro turned to see a young man with a sheen of black hair and narrowed midnight blue eyes. He straightened his glasses and glared back at Hiiro without any fear. The once Perfect Soldier scowled, wondering if he had lost his touch or if this man simply had a backbone of steel.

"Hai, Chiba-san," the secretary said at the same time Duo yelled:

"YOU!"

Everyone, including the sophisticated young man looked to the braided on, who stared at their visitor with a mixture of relief and something approaching hatred. Where on the Earthsphere could Duo have met this man? They lived four thousand years apart!

"Endy!" The next word from Duo's mouth caused the young man to step back, arms raised suddenly as if in protection . . . or attack. Ah hah! A warrior! No wonder the Death Glare had no effect on him. Hiiro felt slightly better. "You're him!" the braided baka continued, "You're Seren—"

"Shut up, idiot!" The man spat in accented English, surprising everyone but Duo. He motioned them to follow him and marched down a hallway. He pushed past students who grumbled about how teachers were so rude these days. Before long he led them into a small office marked with a plastic plaque on the door: Chiba Mamoru. He shut the door behind Trowa and stalked over to his smallish desk, sat down, and stared at them. Taking a deep, calming breath, he spoke again in English. "Who are you, and how do you know me?" Mamoru reached into his jacket. Hiiro cursed and, in true reflex, had his gun out and aimed before the man had out his . . . rose? "And don't lie to me," he concluded, as if his flowery little weapon might actually do some harm. Hiiro, as well as the rest, looked to Duo.

"You're Serenity's . . . husband." He seemed to spit the word out with difficulty.

"I will be . . ." Mamoru replied in slow, careful tones that made Hiiro wonder if there might be some trick in the answer. Next to him he heard a gasp and looked to the wide-eyed form of Quatre, who stared at the black-haired man with new appreciation.

"Endymion! I remember now! You look exactly like you did back then, on the Moon!"

Endymion? Hiiro glared harder at the man named Mamoru. Prince of the Earth, fighting against the Dark Kingdom, died for his love the Princess Serenity, the one that Setsuna told them about? THAT Endymion? Hiiro lowered his gun. If this was the man who died to save Usagi in another lifetime, he would be no danger to them.

"I'm called Mamoru-san in this lifetime," he said, emphasizing the respectful suffix, "but Chiba-san to those who don't know me. But you still haven't answered my question. We usually don't reveal our identities to just anyone."

We? Oh yes, Hiiro remembered, Setsuna mentioned protectors as well. Surely they lived in this lifetime as well, protecting their princess as they had on that long-ago Moon.

"Well . . ." Quatre glanced to each of them in turn, the question in his eyes one of wondering how much they should say. Had Usagi told her husband and friends the entire story? Or did they know nothing of the five? "We're . . . old friends of Usagi-san."

Midnight blue scanned each of them in turn, a possible small spark of recognition behind them, only possible. Those orbs were as unreadable as Hiiro imagined his own Prussians to be. Finally Chiba sat back and steepled his fingers, looking over the tips to his five guests. He said:

"Alpha is a demon in mechanized form."

Hiiro felt the jolt of his limbs. He knew his own face reflected the absolute shock shown by his four comrades.

"That's right," Quatre said, sadness fraying the sides of his face into a weary mask, "Alpha was a demon, until Doctor Mizuno destroyed it utterly. Relena ordered the destruction done."

"You're Quatre, I assume," Chiba sighed, at last some of the hardness melting from his features. "Usako did mention her . . . trip." He said the phrase with distaste. "She never would say very much about what happened, except she talked about the five of you often. She still mentions you from time to time. You would be Wufei," he gestured to the Chinese man, who nodded. "I would put that away if I were you. Not many people walk around Tokyo bearing katanas." Wufei quickly shoved the sword behind his back. "Trowa," he looked to the tall one, then back to Quatre. "You two should meet Haruka-san and Michiru-san," he mumbled- almost as an afterthought, a memo to himself- before moving his appraisal to Hiiro. "Hiiro Yui. From what I've heard, I like your style, though Usako would never tolerate it in me." And then those dark, stormy orbs moved to Duo. Palpable dislike sparked across the room between the two of them.

"I met you once," Duo offered, surprising Hiiro. "In the future. About six months after Usagi left us." At his mention of Usagi's name, sans suffix, Chiba's expression grew darker. "Don't worry, you two are very happy together."

"I never had any doubts of that, Duo," the man growled. By the God Duo believed in, Chiba was jealous! Hiiro almost laughed aloud to think of it. He must have learned the fact of Duo's attraction for Usagi from her stories, even if the girl herself had never picked up on the braided one's feelings. Even Hiiro knew that Usagi had left Duo for Chiba then, completely in love with this darker man even at the age of sixteen. However, that knowledge must not be enough to stave off the green-eyed monster. Admit it, Yui, you get jealous when any of those other snots even glance at Relena. He knew, of course, that Relena felt love only for him, but the idea that those other, richer men were better for her never seemed to completely leave him.

"How old is she now?" Hiiro asked again, this time to someone who would be able to answer.

"She's twenty-three."

"Only seven years," Quatre mused, "Setsuna's a bit off. I wonder why she would send us here?"

"You can ask her soon enough," Chiba replied, standing, "She called me earlier asking for a meeting. Apparently she had some sort of disturbing vision she thinks is going to have some effect on the Timestream. In light of that, your appearance here can't be a coincidence." He paused, eyes boring into the far wall. "But she didn't mention you." He shrugged, as if trying to heft that doubt from his mind, "She must have some explanation. She always does."

"You're tellin' me!" Duo exclaimed, laughing. For a moment, just a split second, a smile crossed Chiba's face. Then he seemed to remember who had spoken and that stone expression closed once more.

"We should be heading towards the Hikawa Shrine. Setsuna is supposed to meet us there in," he lifted his watch to cool eyes, "about half an hour. Usako should already be there."

"Wait a minute," Wufei put his hand out, "You can't expect us to believe that Usagi-san is actually a place she needs to be half an hour BEFORE she needs to be there. It's impossible." Hiiro nodded sagely, as did the other three. They all knew such a situation would defy the laws of physics.

"Not so impossible as you may think. I set all of the clocks in our home an hour ahead." This time a great, mischievous grin broke over his face, and Hiiro could see why Usagi could love him. "She thinks she's already late."

"And she hasn't caught on yet?" Quatre asked incredulously.

"Not when all of her friends know about the ruse and, when appropriate, play along." Mamoru chuckled under his breath. "Right about now, Rei-san is probably telling her she read the clock wrong."

Hiiro didn't want to believe that Usagi, the girl who so passionately defended love and life in his time, could be so fooled by something so simple. Then he remembered Duo's prank with the Tabasco sauce and sighed.

Mamoru picked up a briefcase from the floor behind his desk and straightened, mouth open, apparently in preparation to say something. At that moment, however, Quatre was pushed aside by the slamming opening of the door. There stood the woman they all remembered, panting, green-black hair in disarray, maroon eyes wide and wild.

"Gomen nasai, Mamoru-san," she said in between gasps for breath, "but I couldn't wait, this is too important." She brushed past the five of them as if they were not even there, giving no sign of greeting or even of recognition. "The Timestream is in danger—"

"Hey, Sets!" Duo exclaimed, his face set into the expression that proclaimed him trying- to- cause- as- much- annoyance- as- possible. Hiiro saw that look way too often. "Dontcha think it would be nicer to speak English for those of us dunces that can't understand Japanese?" He walked up and, now tall enough, flung his arm around her shoulder, a gesture that any of them could have told him would be considered extremely rude. However, the reaction it did elicit surprised even Hiiro.

Setsuna reached up and pried his arm from her shoulder with unfeminine force, pushed him back against the wall and snarled. When she spoke, it was in English, and the words caused a general wave of panic through the future five.

"Who are you?"

End Chapter One.


	3. Chapter 2

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Mended Wing – Chapter Two**

Trowa looked about the small room and the numerous inhabitants thereof. He stood at the wall farthest from the door in a simple gesture to conserve space. This shrine bedroom was obviously never meant to hold fifteen people. Around the small wooden table knelt Usagi's four closest friends, as they were introduced: Mizuno Ami (whom he remembered), Hino Rei, Kino Makoto, and Aino Minako. Trowa winced inwardly as the blonde eyed him wistfully. He had to admit that she was quite attractive, for a girl. But the glaring daggers Quatre sent her could not be ignored, whereas she could.

Outside them stood three more women, two older, one younger than the other . . . Senshi? The tallest, a blonde whom he had first thought a man, glared at the five with unhidden suspicion and contempt. Trowa hoped he would never have to fight this woman, for she seemed as if she would be a fierce competitor. He smiled a bit, knowing that all of that energy went towards the protection of Usagi, even if the woman would never say it aloud. He recognized his own protectiveness in her. She had been introduced as Tenoh Haruka.

Beside this glaring form stood a smaller, more elegantly shaped female, who looked as though she would like to welcome them with open arms, but held herself back for the sake of her taller companion. Introduced as Keioh Michiru, Trowa recognized in her the slight leaning towards her lover that Quatre evinced when unsure of himself. Next to this woman, but standing a bit off from the others- or as much as she could in this crowd- a small and rather sickly seeming girl trained violet eyes on Duo, who fidgeted under the glare. The acrobat shuddered; he would no more like being under those eyes than he would like his head being crushed by a lion's teeth. Something about that girl unnerved him, made him want to run away despite all of his experience in war and death. Tomoe Hotaru in all of her childish innocence, caused a great well of dread in his stoic heart.

Setsuna faced them, as did Mamoru. But Usagi stood with them, bouncing excitedly and ten times more beautiful than the last time they'd seen her. Even Trowa had carried a bit of a crush on her, but he doubted if there was one of them who hadn't. Quatre blushed when she ran into the room and immediately flung her arms about him.

And Duo . . . poor Duo. He gazed on her with an open expression of wistful love, sorrow tingeing the edges in the knowledge that he couldn't have her. He had tried not to hug her in return when she came to him, but Trowa saw the crumbling of that resolve as his arms closed around her slender waist. Mamoru flushed in silent rage.

"Setsuna-san!" Usagi whirled on her older, probably oldest, friend and screeched in indignation, "Why didn't you tell me you were bringing them here?!?"

"Because I didn't, Usagi-chan, or at least not yet." She smiled when she saw not only Usagi's blank look, but the confusion all around. "I don't know the pilots, because I live in this time. The Setsuna who took you into the future would have been a Setsuna from the future, and she must have been the one who sent them here."

"Oh." Usagi paused, contemplating this, rolling it over in her mind. Trowa could tell because all of this roiling thought showed clearly on her face. Before he realized, a deep chuckle rose from his throat, partially from seeing that adorable expression on her face, and partially from relief at just seeing her again. His laughter danced across the space between him and Quatre, who picked it up and amplified it and passed it on to Duo. From there Hiiro and Wufei caught the chuckle-disease and in seconds all five pilots where being stared at by nine confused Senshi and one Prince of Earth who couldn't seem to decide whether to be angry or muddled. None of them cared.

* * *

Minako glanced between the odango atama who was her best friend and the laughing, VERY handsome braided man who obviously felt much more towards Usagi than simple friendship. Mamoru couldn't be too overjoyed over his wife having such a . . . friend.

Maybe, if Minako were lucky, SHE could find such a friend in one of the five.

The tall one, Trowa, would have been her first choice. Exotic, his height and coloring alone made him an attractive example of the male species. Being a circus performer meant, also, that his long frame would be mighty limber. A distinct advantage. But, if she remembered correctly, someone else already staked a claim to him; the small blonde, if memory served. Trowa was about as accessible as Haruka-san.

Minako sighed and moved on. Not the braided Duo. His affections lay elsewhere. Hiiro, she recalled, gave his heart over in mad love to a princess from his own time, Relena. Usagi spoke often of her descendent, very proud of the girl and her accomplishments.

Well then, that left Wufei, didn't it?

Even had she not been told- several times over, at her own insistence- about each of the pilots at length, Minako still would have known that the Chinese man carried a great deal of pride. It nearly flowed from him as he stood there, arms crossed, nose held slightly in the air. He obviously felt himself slighted at having to share space with them, and she could guess the reasons why. Each of them, save Mamoru, had two reasons bouncing merrily from their chests. Certainly, Minako was very proud of her own, and she adjusted them just before he turned his dark eyes to her. She gestured him over and those eyes blinked, surprise shining deep in their liquid blackness. Among the throng of people asking Usagi and the other pilots questions, his movement towards her went unnoticed.

"What do you want, onna?" he asked her in nearly perfect Japanese.

"I just wanted to welcome you to Tokyo, and to the year 2001." She grinned as he blinked once more in surprised at her English, only slightly marred by an accent. "I spent a few years in England." She stuck out her hand for him to grasp, lifting one brow as she looked on him, daring him to accept. At first Wufei seemed as if he may actually turn her down. Then he scowled and gripped her slender hand in his own, closing his fingers tightly. It felt like he tried to crush her hand with his strength. Minako stared him in the eyes, refusing to flinch, even as the bones covered by her flesh ground together. Moments passed, and at last the golden-skinned man released her.

"You're stubborn, onna, but stubborn doesn't mean you're strong."

"Oh, you're just as arrogant as Usagi-chan said!" Minako clapped her hands together and felt a great surge of wicked pride as he threw a glower in Usagi's general direction. "I'm going to make a project out of you!"

"P-Project?" He recoiled, and Minako grinned to see the flicker of fear behind his dark eyes.

"Oh don't worry, it won't be painful!" She paused and placed a finger at her chin as if in deep thought, "Well, not too much anyway."

"Baka onna!"

Minako watched him back away and sighed. What was it about her that always seemed to scare the men away?

* * *

"Let's go shopping!" Usagi stated, one arm raised in unabashed enthusiasm. Duo looked at her skeptically. Shopping certainly didn't seem like the proper activity to be engaging in at the moment, what with Setsuna's vision and the five pilots suddenly thrust into the past with no explanation. However, Usagi shaped the tides in her own will, just like the bright orb that once was her home.

"Usako, I don't think—"

"Mamo-chan, who knows how long they'll be here, and they didn't have time to pack!"

"Erg . . ." Duo swore he saw a large sweatdrop fall across the dark man's face. "But Usako—"

"Mamo-chan! They only have one pair of clothing each! What are they going to do, wear your clothes??"

The blonde odango had a point. Duo looked at himself, his four friends, and then at Mamoru. The five all possessed the tall, wiry frames of teenagers, even though they claimed the ages of twenty-three and twenty-four. Perhaps something about Gundanium stunted maturity. No one could say, however, that they weren't strong.

Though they were grown, Mamoru still stood above them all save for Trowa, whom he shared a height with. While their muscle hid within the deceptive slenderness of their forms, the dark man's strength was laid out for all to see. His muscles did not bulge, but he definitely filled out his shirt more than the pilots did theirs. All in all, the borrowing of clothing would not be an option. Duo grinned, looking forward to the little trip in which Usagi would spend all of her husband's money.

"Alright," Mamoru finally said, handing over a credit card, "but I expect you to pay attention tonight when I tell you want happened at the meeting."

"Hai, hai!" she bounded up to him, threw her tiny arms around his neck, and kissed him passionately before them all. Even Mamoru seemed shocked by this display, for when she released her hold, he didn't move or even blink, merely stared stupidly into space. "We'll meet you at four o' clock near Juuban." Usagi grabbed Duo with one hand and Quatre with the other, dragging them outside. The other three followed.

"I've got to keep him on his toes," Usagi answered his unspoken question with a wink.

She led them all over Tokyo, through the shops and the Juuban area where she'd grown up. She even took them to meet her parents. Mrs. Tsukino (Tsukino-san, he reminded himself) immediately cheered and rushed them all into the kitchen for lemon pie and cakes. Mr. Tsukino grilled them about their ages, occupations, and girlfriends. He approved endlessly of Trowa and Quatre, seeing them as no threat to his daughter's virtue. Duo wondered if the man realized Usagi was married. Hiiro admitted finally to being in a relationship with Relena when asked. Duo, however, and Wufei created quite a problem, being single. The braided on felt the urge to scream at the man that Usagi was married, and there was nothing any of them could do about it, as much as he might like to. However, Usagi saw the incident about to happen and quickly made up an excuse for them to leave.

"Your father is . . ."

"Odd, I know," she completed his sentence even as she threaded her slender arm through his and lead them on to more shopping adventures.

They met an old friend of Usagi's named Umino Naru, complete with geeky husband in tow. Duo had to admit the woman was cute, but she was no Usagi. He flirted anyway, just to see the shade of red her husband's face would turn. Surprisingly Naru turned out to be very devoted to him, and rebuffed the braided one gently. Duo smiled as the two walked away, glad to know that more than one loving wife existed in the past. His gaze drifted to Usagi then, and his smile wavered.

Tokyo, as she lead them through its streets and alleys, reminded him of the old simple days when he knew nothing of how his future would be, for these people were really just like his juvenile self. Young, going about their lives, not knowing of the wonderful advances to come nor the wars as a result of that new technology. As Usagi cavorted before him, his comrades joining in her happy antics- even Wufei- Duo saw all around him a stream of lonely orphans who knew not what waited for their descendents in the future, or how much they should cherish their connections with other people. How different could his time be if the people here, in this place in the Timestream, had only stopped pushing each other around and instead pulled each other along?

"What are you thinking about?" Usagi looked up at him with fathomless sapphire eyes that seemed almost as if she already knew.

"Just the future."

"Don't worry about the future," she assured him in usual exuberant style, flinging an arm out to gesture at her fellow human beings, "No matter what happens now, the Senshi and I have things covered!"

"I guess." He offered up a bright, Duo-ish smile to persuade her of his genuine appeasement and tossed his braid over his shoulder with the hand not occupied by her arms. Usagi smiled at him and rose on the tip of her toes, planting a short, chaste kiss on his cheek. Quatre called out to her from in front of a shop window and she flashed him a bright grin before releasing his arm and skipping off to answer the boy's question.

Duo's cheek tingled where her lips touched.

Usagi . . . you really don't know what you do to me, do you? You really don't.

* * *

Usagi-san . . . you really don't know how much I hate this, do you?

Wufei growled to himself as their little group of six wandered aimlessly all over the city of Tokyo and accomplished absolutely nothing. Well, he had two new shirts and three pairs of pants. Those would come in handy in a Time where he had no worldly possessions and no identity because he didn't exist yet.

He hated time travel.

The entire thing had been easier when he was not the one leaping over years and finding himself plunked into a different place and time altogether. All he had to do was watch her, learn her odd dialect, and rejoice when she left and his life returned to some semblance of normal. Okay, so he'd thought about her often between now and then, but a brief relationship with Sally Po had cured him of that. However, since he could never understand her or her penchant towards hopeless battles, that lasted only a year. Sometimes he paused a moment and wondered what might have been. Then reality usually found a way to sink in and remind him that there could be no turning back. Well, not for him anyway.

Or so he'd thought. But now the clock HAD turned back, but way too far. Way, way too far. The story of his life, really. Chang Wufei never could do anything except in extremes.

"Wufei-kun!"

Sigh. When Usagi called, one generally listened. Not out of fear, however. He went to her because she exuded cheerfulness, and he wanted to go.

"What is it?"

"Look, don't you just love that shirt?"

He looked through the window at the garment she indicated, seeing a garish thing of yellow and orange, emblazoned with a large black dragon across the front. The dragon he liked, yes, but the colors . . . Wufei lifted a brow and gave his female friend a questioning look specifically crafted to make her rethink her choice in clothing for him. He forgot, however, that he threw this expression at Tsukino Usagi, who perfected the art of ignoring such things and getting her own way despite the resistance of others. Instead of dropping the subject of the horrid shirt, she grabbed his hand and dragged him into the store, rummaging through racks in order to find the garment in a size four times what he normally would wear.

"Go on," she said, shoving him into a dressing booth, "try it on! See how it looks before you completely discard it!"

Wufei grumbled as he locked the door, wondering just what he'd done in his life to deserve such treatment. Surely nothing he could possibly do would warrant the forcing of really bad clothing onto his person? He could simply not be that evil. Growling obscene words under his breath, the Chinese man jerked off his own blue tank top- how long had he owned that one anyway?- and slipped the large, button down yellow and orange monstrosity over his head. A glance in the mirror confirmed that while orange and yellow did not necessarily clash with his complexion, he simply could not stand the thing. Usagi really did need to work on her sense of style, at least for men's clothing.

"Come out and show me what it looks like!" Her music voice floated through the white panels of wood between him and the outside world. A strange world with no concept of mobile suits, the resources available in space, or of the simple beauty of a white silk shirt. "Come on, Wufei-kun!"

With a sigh he unlocked the door and stepped out to the expectant faces of Usagi and his friends. The blonde girl . . . woman, he corrected himself . . . clapped and bounced on her toes upon seeing him. The other four pilots stood behind her, either smirking in amusement, or looking at anywhere but him so they wouldn't have to smirk. Even Hiiro had a hard time hiding his amusement, and Wufei swore that the former Wing pilot would have hell to pay if that smile ever did appear.

"Wufei-kun, it looks great!"

"Yeah Wufei," Duo leaned on her shoulder, one arm dangling at his side, indigo eyes looking over the Chinese man's form, "it looks just absolutely great. Hey, why don't you walk over there and see if you can set the men's clothes on fire?"

While Wufei agreed that most of those items did need to be burned, he saw no humor in Duo's statement. He stepped forward fully intending to pummel that grin from the braided baka's face, when Usagi put both her arms up between them.

"No fighting. My rule. In this time, when there are no youma and no one trying to take over or destroy everything, we don't fight."

Wufei didn't think that it worked exactly like that, however, he knew better than to try and contradict her. At least about that. So she made them shake hands and promise to "play nice." The image of two unruly children in a playground only made him scowl more.

Usagi bought the shirt for him and forced him to wear it out of the store. He felt the eyes of everyone one him for wearing such a horrible faux pas, of that he was certain. Nevermind that half of the young men around here wore clothing of a similar style. None of them had any sense whatsoever and with Usagi's purchase he had officially become one of them.

"It's not so bad, really Wufei-kun," Usagi said as she came up behind him. She smiled, and suddenly he didn't seem to care anymore. What kind of person could do that? Did it take being a princess of a long forgotten kingdom? Or was she just . . . like that? Wufei sighed and gave in, smiling as well. He even put out his arms in offer of a hug, which she readily accepted. Memories of that dance they'd shared came to his mind, and those memories were not bad at all as he held her small frame in his arms. But he felt nothing special, other than a deep respect and friendship. Good, his crush had passed. However, the look on Duo's face was priceless, and it would be a laugh to make him think—

Usagi gave a short cry that died as quickly as it was birthed. Her form went limp in his embrace just as suddenly. Wufei stood there a moment, feeling something terribly, horrible wrong, but not knowing what it was or what to do. He knew one thing: he didn't want to look at her. He didn't want to see, he didn't . . . but he couldn't stand there holding her and some instinctual part of him knew as he braced her loose form that only a millisecond had passed since she first gave her cry.

Behind him he heard the deep, anguished sound of Mamoru's voice and again wished he didn't have to let her go and see . . .

But he leaned forward and cradled her body in his arms, laying her gently on the concrete, people all around them passing by without a care even as Wufei saw the small, perfect circle of a bullet hole in the center of Usagi's forehead. The edges burned red and a small trickle of blood oozed from the ugly wound in testament to the horrid act just performed. He felt wind from behind him as nine people rushed over to see the fate of their princess. The woman Rei gave a strangled sound. From ahead Duo lurched forward, pure terror in his indigo orbs. Quatre keeled over with his hands to his forehead, Trowa obviously torn between aiding his koi and seeing what he could do for the woman who once saved his life. Hiiro stood absolutely still, Prussian eyes darting about . . . in search of . . . the . . . person who . . .

Usagi's body shuddered, and a wave of pure energy shot forth. Wufei heard Setsuna screaming bfore it hit him and then he . . . knew . . . no . . . more.

End Chapter Two.


	4. Chapter 3

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes**: Yay! Chapter three at last! How long have you guys been waiting? I've lost track! Anyways, I had some trouble with the Word program on my computer at home, so unfortunately the first part of this chapter is going to be really screwed up in the formatting. I'm trying to fix it, but I have the sneaking (sinking) suspicion that no matter what I do, it'll long bad. That's the part (the first part) that I could only open in Notepad, and then only in one big long section. I re-formatted it in Word, in a .doc file… however it changes back to one long paragraph whenever I save it into .HTML… so well… that's bad, yes, but… I FINISHED IT! YAY! Teehee. Thankies to **Marika Webster** who is suffering from husband withdrawal, thought she won't admit it. ;o) **Girl-chama** ::huggles:: I sowies I been such a downer::sniffles:: Forgive me?**Fuuzaki-chan** BEHAVE YOURSELF! **Trenchcoat Man** Hey, aren't you glad to be back in touch with the astral realm, ne? Everyone else: Thanks for you support and for loving BW enough to come back for more of Sailorcelestial's Cliffhanger Craziness!

**Disclaimer**: I dun own em. Neither of em. Well… I sorta own part of em from here on in… but you'll see. Full steam ahead!

**Mended Wing – Chapter Three**

Rei saw the air around Usagi's body ripple, then the wave burst out in all directions. Her arms raised instinctively to fight it off, but energy is an unstoppable force and she could only close her eyes as it hit her. Behind her Setsuna's shrill screaming cut off abruptly. Minako and Ami both moaned their own durges as Makoto howled in pure rage. Haruka cursed. Hotaru began to intone some dire warning that really came much too late. Michiru actually sounded as if she might collapse. Rei felt a rough hand push her aside as Mamoru heaved forward to go to his wife's side, but something inside the priestess told her all she needed to know.

As her hair settled around her form, Rei finally found the courage to lower her arms and open her eyes. The first thing she saw was the hunched form of Mamoru over Usagi's lifeless form. He reached forward a shaking hand to her face, tracing the line of her jaw slowly, carefully, as though his mere touch might cause her to shatter irrevocably. At last she saw the river of anguish spill over his bottom eyelids and the pillar of a man lurched forward, scraping his hands on the concrete in his desperation. Mamoru clutched the corpse of their princess to him, entire body trembling in violent heaves. Rocking her back and forth as a father would a loved child, Mamoru murmured under his breath and Rei knew he begged her to return to him, as would she beg were she in his position. She felt her fingers clench tightly into her palms and only barely the sharp sting of her nails biting into the flesh.

"What the HELL is going on here and who are you people?!?" cried a voice. A familiar voice. But a wrong voice. Rei looked past the scene of her prince and dead princess towards the five who came from the future. The voice had been Quatre's. Only . . . why did he have such dark circles under his eyes? And his entire body spoke not of the gentleness she had come to expect from him not only by Usagi's stories, but by the short time she'd seen him at the shrine. This person exuded pure hatred, not of anyone around him, but of himself.

Feeling her throat constrict and her lungs refuse to pull in air, Rei turned her gaze to the remaining four.The most noticeable difference about Trowa came in the guise of his shorter bangs. No longer did brown hair hide half his face. Two emerald eyes stared out from that countenance, shining with confusion. He wore a stylish uniform, what looked liked something someone would wear to a private school, though she got the impression from the way he stood and carried himself that this man dressed like this at all times. Wufei did not look much different, save for the glasses perched on his nose and the traditional Chinese silk shirt he now wore, the same as the one he'd been wearing over his blue tank top. Instead of white, now the color was a deep crimson red. He looked around with a hard, snobbish expression and seemed to carry himself with a practiced rigidity.

Hiiro looked on the scene with pure, unhidden curiosity. Behind his Prussian eyes now could be seen his entire soul, from the sorrow he felt at seeing Usagi's body and its wound, to the shame at being fascinated even as he mourned her. He swallowed, those eyes shifting to look at Rei, who had to turn her gaze elsewhere.

Duo surprised her the most. He wore a full Catholic priest's outfit and clutched a Bible to his chest. His hair no longer fell down his back in a long braid, but was cut around his head in the normal manner of men. His violet eyes were wide, innocent, and frightened, void of the trickster and ladies man he'd been before.

Before? Before what?

Oh yes. Usagi's . . . Usagi's . . . death.

"I demand to know what's going on!" Quatre shouted again, his voice rising to catch the attention of several onlookers who had not noticed Usagi's swift demise by soundless shot. Now people crowded about, many asking if the lady had fainted before seeing her forehead. Several screams rose through the crowd at once, and one man ran off to find a telephone.

"Shut up!" Mamoru growled at the young man, his midnight eyes closing against everything around him. His arms tightened around his wife, so tightly Rei feared he might break her.

"How dare you! Don't you know who I am?!? I'm Quatre Raberba Winner, heir to the Winner Corporation—"

"You're Quatre Winner?" Hiiro asked with wide eyes, stepping closer to the blonde to inspect what seemed as if to him was a living legend. Trowa also looked faintly surprised, but stayed where he stood. His eyes carried no overt connection to Quatre, no obvious feeling. He didn't even know the other man. None of them knew each other. Rei could tell by the suspicious and curious glances they gave each other as well as the nine Senshi and their fallen leader. Wufei sniffed towards Quatre.

"I heard you'd been exiled to a far colony by your father so he wouldn't have to deal with your whining and pathetic suicide attempts anymore."

This is insane, Rei found herself thinking.

"You brainless peon!" Quatre turned to Wufei, fist clenched, dark-ringed blue eyes sparking with fury, sorrow, desperation, and pleading all at the same time and none for the same reason, "You goddamned, idiotic moron! I could have you arrested for looking at me the wrong way!"

"Peon?" Hiiro laughed loudly, a little too loudly as he turned away from the morbid sight of Usagi's body, "What are we, in the feudal age?"

Rei looked between the three as they continued to argue amongst themselves, the idea of someone's death completely lost on them. They worried only about their petty disagreement. She saw this in their clouded eyes and felt from them a complete disregard for life, something they had not had before. Usagi had told her about the pilots, and how they appreciated life more than most people because they were forced to take life every day. These were young men who had never fought a war, never seen death, and didn't understand the value of one life lost. Especially this one.

"What's happened?" she asked to no one in particular, to the wind, because she thought that only the wind might be able to answer.

"Usagi-chan . . ." Haruka murmured just loud enough to be heard. Her eyes watched the five as well. Trowa could be seen glancing about at the window shops as though bored with everything. He didn't really seem confused anymore. Perhaps he merely felt that someone would eventually explain it to him. Duo stood slightly apart, eyes flickering back and forth between the ones who had once been his comrades, and the dead girl below him.

"The future is different," a sobbing Ami completed Haruka's thought. "If she's . . . d-dead . . . then Crystal Tokyo was never created. Who knows what effects the absence of Crystal Tokyo will have on the whole span of the future?"

"Apparently a whole hell of a lot," Makoto shouted, mouth curling with lost patience. "They're five completely different people than they were five minutes ago, and they won't be any help to us in bringing Usagi-chan back!"

A gentle hush fell over the nine, and even the arguing three. In that silence the priestly form of Duo stepped forward quietly and knelt beside Mamoru and the corpse- Usagi- opening his Bible to a certain section. His voice began in a low intonation, reading verses Rei had heard before at her Catholic school years ago. Last Rites.

"Bring her back?" the priestess asked in a hushed voice, barely daring to believe it might be possible. "How? Only the Crystal has ever brought any of us back from death, and only Usagi can use it."

"We'll find another way, then." Makoto stood, jaw set. Green eyes flashed to the five who stood in shocked silence. She walked over to Quatre. His silence the past few moments only added to the way her slap resounded across his cheek and through the air. "I don't know what happened to you Quatre, but you had better keep it in line." She looked at the other four, all staring back at her in different shades of shock, "That goes for every single damn one of you. We need your help, and you're going to help us whether you like it or not." Makoto spoke through a clenched jaw, teeth scraping against each other with every word. "Now come on, we need to get Usagi-chan out of here before the cops show up." She glared at Quatre, who found the strength to glare back for a few precious moments. Then he shrank beneath her gaze and the pilots- or what was left of them- moved to help pick up Usagi's body. Mamoru stopped them.

"No. I'll carry her myself." He lifted her so easily, despite how weighty her death seemed to them all. "Hey . . ." Minako looked around with a small sniffle. Rei moved close to her to see if she might need help walking or if she might faint. But Minako's blue eyes roamed a moment longer. "Where's Setsuna-san?"Rei blinked and passed her own violet eyes over the scene, seeing a throng of curious and horrified passer-bys who hadn't passed by. But none of them carried the green-black hair or carriage of strict duty of Setsuna.

"Good question."

* * *

They're insane, all of them.

Quatre placed a hand at the still stinging cheek. Quite obviously none of them knew who he was or what he could have done to them for kidnapping him in such a cruel and rather odd way. He remembered dreaming about the long-banged boy, then suddenly being here among these strange people and their dead friend. Idiots. They should worry about their own welfares and not that of someone who couldn't care anymore.

"We'll take her to the shrine," the tall girl ordered, motioning the man in a specific direction. Quatre saw the muscles of her arms. Not someone to trifle with, oh no, at least not without long and hard planning. Somehow he had to get out of this place and get home.

But why? What about his home made him so desperate to get back? Certainly it couldn't be Iraya, or their father. The man didn't even live with them. Bastard.

"Come on," the tall girl shouted, shoving him to follow the man and the corpse.

"Stop it, Mako-chan." A little blue-haired woman stepped forward. Surely all of these people were about the same age, but somehow this one became a woman, while the rest remained girls to him. "He's confused, just like we are. This isn't his fault."

The tall one, Mako-chan, looked down on her friend and sighed, then turned away.

"We don't have much time," the man barked from ahead of them, "Let's get out of here now."

"Okay, little man," said a rougher voice from behind, "whether you like it or not you're coming with us." Hands to match the voice gripped him by the shoulders and forced him forward, nearly bumping into one of the other boys who seemed to be in a similar bad situation. None of them could possible be as harmed by this experience as he, though. Not nearly so.

That boy looked down on him with brilliant green eyes, partially condescending, partially appraising. Quatre looked up into those green depths, up and up and up and upwards into forever never stopping, never coming down and something seemed so familiar about that gaze, only not so, something was different, something wrong about that face, shouldn't part of it be hidden but it wasn't no just those two emeralds staring out and down on him and he felt as if all of the world hid within those eyes and that boy and who was he who could he be why did he cause this sort of reaction?

"Hey, little man, keep going." The hands pushed him. Not a hard shove, like before, merely a prodding reminder that a world existed outside of the stranger's eyes. One of which winked at him. Quatre felt a bright blush rise to his face even as he took the hands' reminder and started forward, following this strange band of people to wherever they might lead him.

* * *

"We've got to find Setsuna-san."

Father Duo looked on the one who spoke, a raven-haired Jezebel who wore deceptive covering of red and white. Her violet eyes looked truly worried, truly troubled, but he could not trust her. No, he couldn't trust any of them. Not a one. Except . . .

His gaze trailed to the golden-haired girl who lay cold and motionless on the floor in front of the man, Mamoru. She was dead. She would be no trouble to him. A dead girl could do no damage. However, a deep sadness entered his heart when he saw how pale she became and thought on how that skin would never be the vivid color of live flesh again. Something inside told him that even in life this girl had been safe. She would hurt no one if she could possible help it, such evidence of a pure soul written on the completely lineless surface of her white face.

"Usagi-chan's body needs to be suspended to give us time to find a way to bring her back without the Crystal," the Jezebel continued, "Who knows, maybe she can tell us a way to do it. But we won't know until we find her."

"But we don't even know what happened to her," the blonde said, leaning forward to place her elbows on her knees and her chin in her palms, "I mean, did she vanish when the wave hit, or did she leave on her own?"

He knew their names. Introductions had been exchanged upon reaching this shrine of some religion unfamiliar to him. However, thinking of them as Jezebel's, in general terms instead of by specific names, made them easier to keep at a distance. A safe distance.

"Either way, it's a question of finding her." The tall one said this, calmed now and not sending off such an impression of hot-headedness.

"We don't have a Key." The sophisticated aqua-haired woman clung to her blonde companion, the only other man in the room other than Mamoru. Father Duo knew his name to be Haruka. "The Time Gate would be the first place to look, but we can't get there without a Key and she didn't leave any behind."

"That is not entirely accurate." The little blue-haired woman shoved her glasses further up her nose and concentrated on the small blue computer before her. All eyes landed on her and she seemed to slump under that weight. "A few years ago Setsuna-san came to me about finding another way to access the realm of the Time Gate without a physical Key. It's possible she knew something like this might happen."

"What?!?" The tall one leaped from her sitting position, brown ponytail swinging and giving her the bearing of an Amazon. "She knew and she didn't tell us so we could stop it?!?"

"I'm saying she knew something like this would happened, meaning something where she would not be here and we might need to find her. I don't believe she knew Usagi-chan's life was in danger." Ami- he decided it might be safe to think of her name, only think it- adjusted her glasses again and gave her taller friend what could only be deciphered as an icy glare. "Setsuna-san was worried, in any case, and we worked together to create a way for us to get to her without a Key." She paused, looked down at her computer, and spoke again in a confused tone. "Well, technically we are still using a Key, it's just not physically a key anymore."

"Ami-chan, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm not sure, Mako-chan. In all truth, Setsuna-san and I didn't really work together. She took my computer for adjustments and brought it back saying that it could now transport as many people as necessary to the realm between Times. The coordinates are supposed to be saved in a special voice-activated file. Later I looked at the inner circuitry myself to see what she'd done." Here the little one paused. Her friend allowed her to remain silent for a good minute before pressing her for what she had seen. "Somehow, Setsuna-san planted a Key within the wiring and chips of the computer . . . even if I wanted to take it out, I would never be able to; it's a part of the computer now. And it doesn't just serve this function. Since then the Mercury computer has been running on higher power levels and at higher efficiency in general."

The others blinked at her for a few moments, and Father Duo didn't blame them for looking confused, even though they were supposed to know more about what was going on than he. At last it was the raven-haired one who dared to speak.

"You mean there's a Time Key inside the Mercury computer and you can use it to transport us all to the Time Gate?"

The little blue woman sighed, pushed her glasses up for a third time, and glared at her friend.

"Yes, Rei-chan, that's what I mean."

"Then let's go." The tall one stood, reaching for something inside her shirt. Father Duo gasped, pulling his Bible up to cover the indecency. Jezebels they were! All of them!

"Don't worry, Duo," said one of the others, the blonde who resembled the dead girl, "she's not going to do a strip show. She's just getting her henshin wand."

"Henshin wand?" What was this woman talking about? "How do you know my name? You're a demoness!" Demons! Finally the demons had come for him, that's what this was all about! He had a vision of himself lying on his bed in the church, Father Maxwell and Sister Helen hovering over him praying, trying to force the demons away. At least he knew he had those on the side of God working with him, and they would never let him fall to—

"Demoness?" The blonde began to laugh, and when one of her companions spoke to her in another language, she responded with one word, "Youkai" Then she continued cackling like his worst image of evil.

I must be in Hell. Only Hell could be this horrible.

* * *

Masurao watched intently as all of these women brought out little pens that looked similar to each other, only done in different colors, with different designs. He sat closest to the priestess, Rei-chan. He leaned in close to get a better look at the pen she held. Red and gold, the object sported an etching of the symbol of Mars. Masurao looked up into her annoyed violet eyes and grinned his famous Masurao grin.

"Hiiro," she asked him, "what are you doing?"

He blinked. What name had she called him? Hiiro?

"Are you talking about Hiiro Yui?" She couldn't. How could she know about that man? This world of hers seemed to be completely different than his. Strange how he wasn't more upset about this sudden turning upside down of his life.

"That's your name, isn't it?" she spat back, a little nastily if he did say so himself. And he did.

"No," he replied just as nastily, "it isn't. That's the name of a rebel who was rightfully executed for trying to overthrow the Counts. My name is Junsei Masurao." He saw her blink at him.

"Junsei Masurao?" she asked quietly, a different air falling around her, a mystical feeling. "Perfect Warrior . . ."

"Hai," he slipped into his home language, "my family has a long tradition of fighting and combat. We haven't actually fought in a war for about five generations, since there haven't been any wars, but the family name remained, as well as the tradition of naming the child a good warrior's name."

"You can't escape your destiny," she replied, a hazy blank veil falling over her eyes, and he had the sudden impression that he no longer spoke to the girl Rei, but to the priestess. "No matter what time you are in, no matter what life you live, you cannot escape the stain of blood that follows you. Those lives were taken by your hands, and they are your responsibility."

"N-Nani?"

She blinked the light back into her gaze, the misty priestess expression wiped clean as quickly at it had appeared. She looked at him another moment as if he were completely insane, then stood with the rest of her odd friends.

She acts as if I'm some kind of murderer!

"Mars Crystal Power— Make UP!"

He looked up just as her words were being followed by similar ones from all of the women. Red, blue, gold, green, yellow, aqua, and deep violet swirled through the room, bathing the body of the woman who had called it. Rei's brilliant shower of fiery red splashed him, marking him with its sparking glow even as the lights began to fade. Masurao felt strangely energized by the light's touch, as if he could go out and fight the Counts himself. If he wanted to, which he would never dream of wanting.

In the place of the seven women and two men stood eight sailor- skirted women and one man in a tuxedo and cape, white mask hiding his eyes. At first their faces seemed hidden, blurred by some power he had yet to understand. Then, slowly, those delicate expressions came into focus and Masurao recognized them as the same women who had been in their presence only moments ago. These women were different, however. Stronger. More deadly.

"Demons!" the priest screeched from his corner, "The power of the Devil! They work Satan's magic!"

The one named Mako-chan, probably short for something longer, clenched her fist and looked ready to pummel the poor man. Luckily for the shivering mass of fear, Ami-chan stopped her taller friend's hand as she had when the woman had slapped that insufferable Quatre Winner. Correction: Quatre Raberba Winner. So Mako-chan opted for harsh words instead of harsh fists.

"Listen you little . . . I don't even know the proper word for a cowardly worm like you—"

"I'm not a coward, Demoness!" he screamed from behind the protective cover of his Bible. "I simply don't deal with the likes of you!"

"Right, and Pharaoh 90 didn't almost destroy the world."

Masurao understand the blank looks being given by those who seemed like his fellow misplaced ones.

"That's not important, what IS important is the fact that you have to stop cowering behind your book and your religion and help us, or your future, present, whatever, is never going to be like it was before."

"My future will be just fine without your evil interference!"

"Okay, first lesson: I'm not evil. None of us are. We're about as far as evil as you can get without being God, you understand?"

The little priest opened his mouth again, face flushed, and Masurao understood that he meant to call her a blasphemer and who knew what else. He never got the word out of his gaping hole.

"Second lesson: we won't deny you help just because you're too ignorant to know you need it, but we WILL make you think you're in Hell if you don't at the very least stay out of our way. You got that?"

He nodded, then proceeded to mutter something that Masurao hoped the tall woman either didn't hear or chose to ignore.

"That's all for now, but trust me, I'm sure I can come up with more as I need to, so behave yourself and don't run around shouting anything about demons." She turned to face Ami-chan, who now wore a sailor outfit in white and different shades of blue. Her glasses had been replaced by a blue visor that nonetheless made her look even more intelligent than the glasses did. Despite her small and initial mousy appearance, Masurao recognized the hiding beauty beneath that visor and knew that if she lived in his world, she would be the type of girl his parents would want him dating. Not Rel. He wondered whether Rel thought he had left her standing there on purpose, or if she understood that something quite inexplicable had occurred. He smiled as he knew she would understand.

"Okay, minna-san," the blonde, Minako-chan, ordered, "let's get going. Mercury, if you would do the honors."

Mercury? But Ami-chan nodded and leaned forward towards her small computer and spoke.

"In all the vast reaches of Time, one place remains untouchable."

For the second time in one day, Masurao's world turned upside down.

End Chapter Three.


	5. Chapter 4

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Dooby! Hey, how's everyone since the last chapter, ne? Well, all I have are my thankies. **Marika Webster:**hey… I want those chapters of PATT!! NOW::starts whining:: **Fuuzaki-chan:**Just remember… everything's fine. I promise. As of this note, I haven't gotten a chance to speak with K-chan yet, but I will. **Girl-chama:** Lookit::does a little happy dance:: I'm happy! I'm hyper! See, see! **Trenchcoat Man: **Now, why are you here again? Oh yeah, I'm not pissed at you anymore. ::grin:: Well, TCM, since I write these stupid notes before I actually start to write the chapter, let's see if your attempted SSP makes it into the story, shall we?

Disclaimer: I don't own GW or SM, but I did make up the alternate personalities of the GBoys so in a round about way I do sorta own them. Hehehe.

**Mended Wing – Chapter Four**

Hell never seemed so empty. In all of his classes with Father Maxwell, Hell had come to his imagination as a place of fire filled with the screaming souls of those too damned to see past their own pain. Or if not fire and brimstone, then Hell usually had at least a devil or two, skittering about with pitchforks, threatening horrible things to souls who had chosen the absence of God rather than His love.

This place, however, pulsed with an emptiness so vast it seemed to invade his very heart, the heart he had given to his Lord and Savior as a young child. He clutched his Bible close as he did when afraid and stepped away from the people who had brought him to this lowly location.

"This is it," the raven Jezebel, in her sluttish sailor suit, said to him and the other men made his companions by simple fact of being just as lost as he. The girl waved a hand about in an introductory manner and sighed. "Not much to see, we know, but somehow Setsuna-san manages to live here alone most of the Time." In this place the word "Time" automatically became capitalized, even in speech, as if Time were a god unto Itself. A blasphemy, to be certain, and he deserved penance for even thinking such a thing. Oh, dear and merciful Lord, if he didn't get out of here soon he surely would give in to temptation. Then there would be no salvation for him.

"Hey, Father Dowling, snap out of it."

Father Duo blinked himself from thought to find the fingers of the vicious tall one, complete with sharpened nails, snapping not two inches in front of his face. A strangled and rather pitiful "meep" escaped his lips and he stumbled backwards, falling through a pool of white mist to slam into an invisible but all too solid floor. When he found the courage to look up, the girl stood above him in a most menacing manner, hands to her hips, feet wide apart. He imagined one of the others standing behind her with a ready spear, the glittering spearhead engraved with his name.

"We don't have time for anyone, least of all you, to stand around here lost in thought, especially if those thoughts involve fire and eternal damnation."

"I wasn't—"

"Don't lie. You're a priest. Not only is fire and eternal damnation constantly on your mind, but it's a mortal sin to lie, isn't it?" She sniffed down at him in total disgust. "I thought Duo Maxwell never lied, or at least that's what Usagi-chan always said." A deep shadow crossed her face and he couldn't tell if the darkness had spread there, or if it was genuine sorrow that tinged her features. "Things have changed because of her death. That's why we're going to bring her back."

"Why involve us in your hopeless endeavor?" asked the Chinese man, stepping forward to confront the Amazon demon with much more courage than Duo himself felt. "We have no involvement with you or this, 'Usagi-chan'."

"You do, more than you remember." Ami-chan began, but was interrupted by the only one who truly seemed demonic.

"We don't have Time to tell them the whole story. Hopefully, if we find Setsuna-san, we can bring Usagi-chan back and won't _have_ to explain their real futures to them."

"You're all insane, and I demand to be taken home right this instant!" The pale blonde screamed, his words echoing through the emptiness. "Maybe the little snot-nosed priest is right and you're all evil little demons who took us from our homes to—"

"Shut up!" The tallest woman, whom Duo had mistaken for a man before, stepped through the crowd and scowled at all of them, friend and lost one alike. "Mako-chan is right. Let's get going and find that crazy Guardian before something else happens."

"Wait," pleaded the smallest of them all, a girl whose eyes reflected the loneliness of this place, "where is the Time Gate?" She cast a violet gaze about, and the others followed suit. Duo looked as well, though he wasn't sure what exactly it was he searched for.

"Could it have been moved?" The blonde asked.

"_Does_ it move?" the serene one known as Michiru-san returned.

"It's possible," Ami-chan replied as her gloved finger typed on her computer's keyboard, "and that would explain why the coordinates Setsuna-san programmed didn't take us exactly there."

"Unless we were blocked from the Gate," the Amazon growled. Father Duo winced, thinking it a good and right thing not to even think her name. The others, perhaps in Time. This one, never.

The blonde leaned down and grabbed him by the arm. He yelped. Oh Lord, did it never stop?!? But she gave him a strange looked and pulled, hauled him to his feet and as soon as he steadied himself let him go and turned away without a second glance. In fact, she turned her attention to the Chinese man.

"Wufei-san," she said, "why aren't you wearing white?" Minako-chan proceeded to pick at the crimson silk shirt the man wore. He scowled and carefully, without violence, removed her questing fingers from his clothing.

"Woman, has no one ever taught you manners?!? It is impolite to touch another person without permission!" Haughtiness dripped from him, and Duo could tell it was all completely natural. "As for your question, it too is impolite. Not only that, but it is idiotic. Why on Earth should I be wearing mourning white?" With that, he jerked his arm from her grasp. Any normal person would get the hint, Father Duo thought, but this girl stuck to Wufei like a leech.

Duo found himself standing beside the tallest of his misplaced comrades, who stood with his arms folded and curious green gaze floating over the expanse of this black and misty Hell. At length, the emerald orbs found their way down to Duo, and the priest decided that the expression in those eyes came too close to that of the Jezebels for comfort.

"Tell me, Father," the man began in a languid tone, as though he were bored with the proceedings and everything about them, "what made you want to be a priest?"

"I-I-I was saved from the life of an orphan by a p-priest," Duo stuttered his response. "He s-showed me the unconditional l-love God gives his people for their own and for him." His voice smoothed out as he began to speak of things he knew, of things he had been taught to say without hesitation. "Father Maxwell was kind to me when no one else that I could remember had been." A small lie, not really anything to be concerned about, really. What business did this man have in knowing about Solo, when the life and death of that boy had no bearing on the current situation? "He and Sister Helen taught me about love, when all I'd known before that was the loyalty of a street rat for his fellow street rats." But hadn't that been a sort of love in itself? Duo didn't believe so; he thought it couldn't be true.

"So you became a priest to make them happy, then?" The man turned the full impact of those green eyes to him, and the appreciation in them almost made Duo tremble violently in fear. "You don't really believe in God."

"That's not true! That's pure audacity to tell a priest he doesn't believe in God!" That had to be a sin, he was sure it had to be written somewhere in the Bible. But the man shrugged and laughed.

"I'm not worried about being damned for telling you the truth you won't see for yourself. By your religious laws, Father, I'm already damned."

"I'm telling you it should be right here!" came the exasperated voice of Ami-chan in the distance. In the second in which Duo flicked his eyes to her and back, the other had made his way towards their spoiled blonde companion, the infamous Quatre Raberba Winner. Duo sighed and wondered when this nightmare was going to end.

* * *

This nightmare had to end. It had to. It couldn't possibly be real. The Time Gate didn't just get up and walk away, and Usagi couldn't truly be dead. Such an idea defied all known logic, because Usagi had to become NeoQueen Serenity. Destiny can't be rewritten and Fate can't be denied. That's what Luna had been telling them since the beginning, since that long ago time eight years ago when they had been awakened to their power and their mission. Luna knew everything, so she had to be right about Fate. Didn't she?

Makoto shook her head against the childish thoughts running though her mind. She and the other Senshi realized long ago that Luna most certainly did NOT know everything, though the feline still tried to make them believe it on occasion.

Luna . . . Artemis . . .

"Oh, Kami-sama!"

"Nani?" Rei leaned towards her, questioning expression in her violet eyes.

"We forgot about Luna and Artemis!" Makoto gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath. "How could we do that?!? They don't even know about Usagi-chan, let alone where we are! They must be worried sick about us!"

"Calm down, Mako-chan," Minako grinned and gave a knowing glance towards Ami. "The two fur balls are probably still out cold at Ami-chan's place. She got a special heat warming blanket for them to sleep on when they visit."

"That doesn't change the fact that when we get back, we're going to have to tell them." Makoto saw the fallen expression of her blonde friend and felt slightly sorry for ruining what little good mood Minako could muster. But the deep sense of duty within her drove her on, told her that her leader was dead and she had to do something about it. A brief image of armor flashed through her mind, the smallest of memories of her home planet. The memories came more often in recent years, but always in short bursts. She had yet to call up the courage to ask the others if they experienced these flashes as well. If she were the only one it would make her special, which she couldn't stand, or insane . . . which she couldn't tolerate.

"I feel terrible," Minako murmured. "We should have told them first thing. Poor Luna."

Makoto took a breath and made an executive decision.

"Alright, we don't need all of you here anyway. Venus, you will go back and take the whiner," she pointed at Quatre, "with you. Afterwards you'll take him to Mercury's apartment and make him at home, because that's where he'll be staying. Gomen, Mercury." Well, that rid her of one extra Senshi and an annoying brat. But whom else did she really need? "Mercury—"

"I know."

"Good. Mars, I think that my lightening will be enough to handle whatever we might find here, so you go back as well, and take Hii . . . I mean, Masurao-kun with you. He'll be staying with you. While you're there I need you to see what you can get from the Great Fire."

"Hai." Rei nodded and walked over to the man they knew as Hiiro, but insisted he be called Masurao-kun.

"Tuxedokamen-sama . . ." Makoto sighed and closed her eyes, kneading the bridge of her nose carefully to massage away the quickly blooming headache behind her eyes. "I need you to carry Usagi-chan. Since Duo-kun will be staying with you and no one else has a key to your place, he'll have to stay with us." Besides, she couldn't shake the feeling that as annoying as he may be, they might actually need the young priest. "Saturn, you will go back with Venus and Mars."

"Demo—"

"Hotaru-chan," she spoke softly, allowing a bit of tenderness for the younger girl to enter her tone, "we won't need you here. There is nothing dangerous enough for us to need to destroy it so utterly. We really should have separated ourselves before we came. Now, I need you to go home and wait. You can help Venus with Luna and Artemis."

"Okay," the girl replied, but a little hesitantly.

"Uranus and Neptune, you'll stay here with Mercury and me. Trowa-kun—"

"Triton."

Makoto blinked then shook her head.

"Triton-kun, whatever. You'll be staying with Minako-chan, so you go back with them."

Triton shrugged. He didn't seem to particularly care one way or the other.

"Wufei-kun—"

"I will remain here."

"I'm glad you feel that way, because I was going to recommend that anyway. We might need your skills . . . I'm assuming you still know martial arts?"

"Of course, woman."

"Makoto-san, if you please." Somehow she didn't see him calling her that anytime soon, however. "We may need you to pose as a distraction for any youma or other baddies that decide to wreck our party."

He paused for a moment, then his face flushed red and he stepped forward.

"You will use me for BAIT?!?"

Makoto grinned.

"You got it."

"I refuse! I warrior of my quality should not be wasted as—"

"YOU DON"T HAVE A CHOICE!" She completed the closing of the gap between them in one step, putting her nose directly in front of his, their faces separated by less than an inch. This close she saw that his eyes really were a very dark shade of brown that only seemed black. And she saw the shock, disbelief, and anger in those eyes. "You are NOT in your own Time where you might be able to treat women any way you want. You are in MY Time, and here I give the orders and you WILL follow them because if we fail to bring Usagi-chan back because you decided to be an arrogant asshole, I swear to Kami-sama that I will rip out your rib cage and wear it as a hat! And that's only the LAST thing I'll do! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Silence. Not only from Wufei, but from all around. Vaguely, from the corners of her eyes, Makoto became aware of her friends' stunned expressions. A shudder began in her stomach, an urge to retch from embarrassment. But she stood her ground, knowing that if she backed down now, even an inch, she would never get from Wufei the respect she needed, and he would never help them. So she clenched her jaw shut tightly, stared him point blank in the eye, and waited.

"I understand," he conceded at length, stepping away from her. The Chinese man put his palms flat together and bowed in the manner of his people, and Makoto returned with her own bow, hands to her sides. She had won a victory, and a truce of sorts. She knew, however, that such a truce could be fragile and lost at the slightest jarring.

* * *

Triton felt the smallest of smirks tugging his lips upwards at the thought of going back with the little blonde. Pale the boyish man might be, and obviously tired, but that did not take away from the blatant cuteness that lurked not far beneath the surface. How bright would those blue eyes be after a good night's sleep? Oh sure, they glared out from a white face with unveiled contempt for everyone and everything, but there had to be a good explanation for that. After all, the man's father did banish him to a border colony out in the middle of the farthest nowhere of the nowhere of space. Probably not even a designer store anywhere in the vicinity.

Amidst the blackness and the mist, with girls in sailor suits chattering all around him, Triton decided that he had found his new project.

"Hey," he heard from over his shoulder the voice of the blonde who harassed . . . Woofer? Woofay? Ah well, how could he be expected to remember all of these names accurately? "What do you say after we break the bad news to Luna and Artemis that we go shopping? We lost all of your new clothes when the energy wave hit."

Shopping! The magic word!

"That's a great idea!" he replied, feeling a sudden rise of enthusiasm. Boredom no longer seemed a certainty here in this strange place. Shopping cured all boredom. "We can take Quatre with us!" Triton grinned at his reward: a glittering glare from the little one. "It'll be fun!" he assured his new companion cheerfully, slinging a long arm about those skinny shoulders. Too skinny. A pang of shock and dismay ran through Triton as he felt Quatre's shoulder blades and knew that not much muscle separated those bones from the skin. Good Lord, what the hell went on inside the Winner family that they couldn't- or didn't- feed their only son and heir?

"Unhand me," Quatre growled, but without the pomposity he'd shown from the beginning. He shrugged Triton's arm off ungently and moved away, turning that small face so that the shadows covered whatever expression might be there. "I don't want to go shopping," he muttered just loudly enough to be heard, "and I certainly don't need a friend like you."

Triton swallowed, and turned to look at the girl when she placed a hand on his shoulder. Her expression was kind.

"Don't worry," she whispered to him mildly, "he just needs some Time to get used to everything. He'll be more amiable soon."

"I hope so," he returned, daring a small glance at the little one. So small and adorable. So perfect, given the proper Time and patience. Triton wondered at his attachment to the arrogant boy, who seemed to have captured some part of him without his knowing. Did those sullen eyes really hold that much power, or did something else about Quatre Raberba Winner call to Triton Bloom?

Time would tell.

* * *

Ami saw her friends and their new companions off, then turned back to the form of Makoto. She had to admit that even though no one had asked the pony-tailed one to take over as leader, Mako-chan really had done a very good job, and did look very formidable as she towered over Duo. Poor Duo. It wasn't his fault that his altered Time had changed him so drastically. As many times as she tried to remind Makoto of that, however, the Amazonian Senshi just didn't seem to understand.

"Don't you have ANY backbone at all?!?"

Ami sighed and turned her eyes down to her computer, her dearest friend in all the world. Her computer would never yell at harmless, cowardly priests.

"Can we stop bullying the mouse and get going?" Haruka asked, hands on her hips in one of those rare moments she seemed a woman. Impatience sparked in those dark blue eyes, an impatience shared by them all. Save Makoto, who seemed to feel only rage.

"I just want him to know that he's got to pull his weight around here."

"He knows," Ami assured her, "you haven't let him forget it since the Time shift. Now, I think I've gotten a direction for the Gate, if anyone's interested." Her fellow Senshi nodded, Mamoru cradled Usagi's body closer, and the two remaining pilots glared at Makoto.

Silence drew closed around their group as they made a path through the mist. Tendrils of gossamer white drifted ahead, parting as warm bodies came close to their iciness. The air itself was not cold, but the more time she spent in the mist the more Ami felt a creeping chill fall on her, as though the mist were crawling into her pores and settling underneath her skin. She felt that she might never be warm again. The barely audible chattering of teeth from behind revealed her companions were affected by the surroundings as well. How had Setsuna ever survived in this place for thousands of years? She had not even had a friend to keep her company. Only the chill and mist. Mist and chill. Floating ice in all directions.

Ami shook her head to clear it.

"Careful," she called back, "this place seems to have an effect on the mind. Don't let it get to you."

"Understood," Makoto replied in militaristic fashion.

"No kidding," Haruka growled.

"We're fine," Michiru asserted, though the waver in her voice said otherwise.

"My mind is perfectly sound, no matter the conditions." And Wufei truly did sound fine.

A whimper came from Duo.

"Someone cover . . . him . . . oh my . . ."

Ami stopped, eyes widening beneath her visor. Protestations came from behind as the others questioned her reasons for stopping. But soon they too fell silent as the reason became obvious.

Before them stood the Time Gate. Not the one they remembered. This Gate stood in ruin, the purity of its white form corrupted by what looked like eons of dirt and grime, though how it could get so dirty in such a place could not be understood with logic. Pieces of whatever material it was made from crumbled as they watched, adding more to the pile of dust at the ground. And leaning to one side was the Time Key of Sailorpluto, dull and rusted.

The Time Gate had not been seen by eyes in millennia.

End Chapter Four.


	6. Chapter 5

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** I am so seriously NOT motivated for Mended Wing. I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to WANT to write more of this. So this chapter might be very short by my usual standards, but hey… at least I wrote it, ne? I think I need some really, really, REALLY good reviews. Bear with me, folks, as I go searching for my long lost motivation. And thankies to everyone who knows they deserve thankies.

**Disclaimer:** Not mine. That's all I feel like saying.

**Mended Wing – Chapter Five**

Quatre felt the urge to poke at the little sobbing cat again. He'd managed one good poke after the cats had first spoken and before Minako had broken the news. He still couldn't quite believe in talking cats, but he thought that a poke probably wasn't appropriate at that moment. The black one was totally inconsolable, lying limp in Rei's arms as Minako petted the other. The white cat, Artemis as the girls had called him, dabbed at his eyes with a paw but refused to sob. He glared instead at Quatre, for he had been the victim of the blonde's shocked curiosity, and being angry at that surely was easier than dealing with the death of what must have been a very close and good friend.

Well, lucky them, for having a close and good friend. They should have a parade in their honor.

"Don't worry," Minako was saying to Artemis, "the others are looking for Setsuna-san. If anyone can fix this, she can."

"Even if they can find her, and we all know that the Guardian of Time will be found only when she wants to be, she won't be able to do anything. She isn't allowed to change the past, remember?" Artemis spoke with barely contained contempt, whether for the woman or the rule, Quatre couldn't tell.

"She isn't allowed to leave the Time Gate either," Minako replied with a wave of her finger and a grin, "but that's never stopped her before."

The conversation continued between the two, Artemis giving all the reasons why this search was ridiculous, and Minako giving all the reasons why they shouldn't give up. Though he never thought he'd think something of the sort, Quatre agreed with the white cat: as good a friend as this Usagi-chan must have been, she was dead. Nothing could bring someone back from the dead, except perhaps for Allah, but he had been somewhat lax in his faith for quite some time and no longer felt certain that Allah was a kind and benevolent spirit. The world was too full of evil and savagery for Allah to be anything other than a cruel trickster.

"I don't believe this!" Minako finally screamed, standing and disturbing Artemis' comfy place on her lap. "Usagi-chan wouldn't give up on any of us! She couldn't! She would search the ends of Earth and beyond to find a way to bring any of us back; how can we do any less for her?" Accusing tears sparkled in her blue eyes, stinging the cat from his guilty expression. "She has brought miracles to Earth, to all of us. It's our turn to bring a miracle to her."

Strangely enough, as Quatre looked on the anguished face of this girl as she spoke of her friend, he believed her. She claimed this girl could command miracles, and he must be insane because he believed her. Some deep part of himself screamed out that if anyone, any mortal, any living being could be pure enough to perform a miracle . . . it had been this Usagi-chan. She had touched these people, and now they had the power too, he could sense it. With her as motivation, Minako and the others could bring a miracle to pass.

And if they could, who was to say that he couldn't?

Quatre swallowed as that same deep part found a tiny spark of sudden and inexplicable hope.

* * *

Where the hell did Setsuna go? And what had happened to the Time Gate? There was no logical reason they should be traipsing about in blackness and mist in search of a Guardian of Time who rarely explained anything anyway. THEN when they finally found the Time Gate, to find no Guardian with it and find it in total disrepair. The answers were less likely to be found in this half-real world where things couldn't keep themselves straight and more likely to be down in the real world, where Usagi had died.

Died. Kami-sama, that word was so strange in connection with the golden haired princess. Age and Death were things that should not have been able to touch her, yet somehow Death had broken through and stolen her before any of them were given a chance to object. Damn if the world wasn't unfair.

Haruka looked down as she felt the lightest of touches at her arm. Michiru looked up at her with aqua eyes, usually so serene, now questing for answers even as they wondered after Setsuna. It unnerved Haruka to think of Michiru as lost, for she had always been the one who knew the way. From the very beginning Michiru conducted the symphony of their lives and duties. Anyone else might think Haruka led the pair, but how could she when Michiru had the knowledge? Haruka merely followed where the lovely one went and had faith in her ability to guide. It had never failed before. But now Michiru was just as lost as she and the world seemed off kilter.

_Princess . . . we never knew how lost we all would be without you until today._

* * *

Wufei stared at the girls through his semi-thick lenses. He drew in a deep breath and adjusted the glasses higher on his nose. Directing his gaze to the run down doorway the women referred to as "the Gate of Time," Wufei took in the rusted hinges and doorknob, the moss-like substance growing over what must have been a white surface, and the crumbling . . . wood? Stone? He couldn't quite tell what material the door was made from.

"What is on the other side of this door?" he asked finally. A small sea of eyes shifted to him, all of which held fear and confusion. The woman Makoto's also held anger.

"The Time Warp. It's how Setsuna-san travels through Time when she finds it necessary."

"Is that all, are you certain?"

An impatient sigh from the tall Amazon.

"Yes, Wufei-kun, I'm sure."

He lapsed into a thoughtful silence and allowed them to return to their low-voiced debate on what to do. From the tone lacing all of their dulcet feminine accents he could tell that they'd never faced a situation quite like this one. Desperation clouded every motion of hands or blink, and Wufei felt despair radiating out from the cluster of sailor-suited girls.

Of all the strange people he'd met since his even more strange arrival, Wufei had yet to see the black-haired man do anything but cradle the corpse as though protecting it from outside harm. The Chinese man saw the clean bullet-wound on the woman's forehead and sniffed a bit at the thought of a man so deluded to think he could bring back a dead person. Without thinking he tread the distance between himself and where this man knelt with his precious burden. Feet scuffing the unseen floor, Wufei stopped and looked down.

"You're pathetic."

A pause. Then the man spoke.

"She's my wife."

"And you should be searching for her killer in order to avenge her, not crooning over her dead body in some hidden place of shadows." Wufei narrowed his eyes when he saw no reaction to his words. "If she was your wife and you loved her, then you are responsible for her soul. Avenge her murder."

"That's not how we do things," the man finally growled, looking up with dark blue eyes as intense as midnight. Wufei almost stumbled a step backward in spite of himself. "We protect the people of Earth, we don't kill them. Besides," he looked back to her, sadly wiping golden hair away from her forehead, unaware of the horrid stain on her beauty, "anyone who knew to strike out at Usako is more than human."

"So much more than human that they used a sniper rifle?"

But he was no longer listening. The man rocked his wife back and forth, eyes misting over again. There would be no reaching him. Wufei wondered in a far away part of his mind what he might do if Meiran were ever killed. A cold, strange shudder passed over his senses, something akin to déjà vu, so close it might as well be the same. The thought of Meiran dead caught in his throat. For a split second he glimpsed a not-quite memory of flowers and a sunny field of blood. Vaguely he saw through the haze of something almost remembered the eyes of the others on him, wondering, speculating. Soft hands came to rest on his shoulder and he blinked away the last misty remnants of the horrible vision that had visited him. The blue-haired one sometimes called Ami-chan, sometimes Mercury, looked on him with concerned eyes.

"Daijoubu?"

His fuzzy brain clicked away, finally translating the simple Japanese term.

"I am fine," he told her, backing away from her comforting hand. He cleared his throat, averting his gaze from theirs, trying to make believe like nothing at all had happened.

"Are you sure?" she asked, switching back to English.

"Yes, onna!" He watched her step away, a hurt expression crossing her eyes. He felt guilty, but not nearly as guilty as when he saw the murderous gaze of the woman who seemed determined to prove herself his equal in all ways, including anger. He seethed in frustration, but didn't relieve it by apologizing. Apologize? Such a thing was unthinkable. Not to a woman. No woman but Meiran. The chill reached for him again and his disciplined mind pushed it back.

"Setsuna wouldn't leave us here in a situation like this," the red-clad girl said as her friend re-joined their group, "Not when we need her so much. So something had to have happened to her."

Wufei sighed. Talking wasn't going to get them anywhere. Instead of joining the conversation, as if he had anything to add anyway, Wufei stepped forward to examine the thing that had caused such shock in the ranks.

Old and decrepit as it was, he could see clearly that all of the damage came from Time, none of it from usage. The door handle, though tarnished, was tarnished in all the same shade, revealing no stain marks from sweat. It hadn't been opened enough for that. He pushed his mouth down into a frown of concentration. Frowns helped him think. What did it mean when a door in a mystical plain had sat unused for what looked like the entire span of Time? Perhaps if he could see this Time Warp . . .

"I am going to open the door," he announced, for no particular reason.

"It's locked," called the one named Rei/Mars.

"I will open it anyway." Decision made, Wufei stepped close and grasped the handle, giving it a determined turn. It gave way easily beneath his grip and the door creaked open ever so slowly. He heard a gasp from behind as the wooden barrier revealed what it had hidden.

A chained and gagged woman.

END.


	7. Chapter 6

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Hey all. I'm trying I new font. I'm not sure it'll even show up on but I got tired of the same old. Anyways, I'm sorry the last chapter was so short, but I wasn't… you know… FEELING it… and I've learned that when you get stuck on something, best thing to do is end it and move on to the next. So I ended that chapter and I've moved on. Little thing: in the scenes with Masurao and Rei, it is to be assumed that they are speaking Japanese to each other, since they are both Japanese. Thankies: **Marika Webster: **::sniffles and looks generally dejected:: **Trenchcoat Man: **Aishiteru and all that happy crap. ;o) **Fuuzaki-chan:**Little bunny Fuufuu…**Rashaka-chan: **Where are you::sniff, sniff:: **Girl-chama:**It's a small, small chapter. Maybe not too many typos. And to all you cool people who hang around and read my stuff. Gods know why…

**Disclaimer:** They aren't mine, not a one of them. Well, not yet anyway. ::grins wickedly::

**Mended Wing – Chapter Six**

Triton sighed. Beside him on the bed stretched the white cat, who hadn't moved since the terrible words that had been spoken. Feeling sorry for it, Triton lifted a heavy hand and stroked the soft fur. A low and broken purr rose from the feline. The young man felt pity for this animal and what it must be feeling, but he realized then that he couldn't really understand. He hadn't lost anyone in such a violent manner.

_Unless you count Katherine. _

Triton gritted his teeth and sat up. He didn't count Katherine. He didn't know his sister was dead. He didn't know that she hadn't found someone better than Raul and settled somewhere.

_But you don't know that Raul didn't kill her either._

The door opened, interrupting his train of thought and for that he was grateful. A blonde head poked through and Minako's red-rimmed eyes gazed on him, their weariness evident. She smiled at him, the corners of her mouth quivering.

"I just thought I'd let you know that dinner is ready."

"Hai, Minako-san. Arigatou. " he replied in butchered Japanese at best. It was worth it to see her smile widen a bit, and hear a laugh from her, no matter how weak. Men may have been his preferred prey… he smiled at that thought… but Minako held a joy in her that shouldn't be quenched. He could tell from just this short time he'd seen her. If he could keep her happy, he would, even if she were female.

"I'm going to have to teach you Japanese."

"I'm going to have to teach you Spanish, but only after I teach you how to really shop!"

They shared a good laugh over that one, a laugh that woke the cat and sent it grumbling to a further corner of the bed. Minako sighed and crossed into the room, scooping the animal into her arms.

"Gomen ne, Artemis. Did we upset you?"

"I can't be more upset than I already am," the cat replied, it's . . . his . . . masculine voice surprising Triton still. "Our princess is dead. The Guardian of Time is missing. Our five best chances for help know nothing about us or themselves." The cat sounded distinctly agitated. Triton felt a sharp guilt for not being what this cat obviously thought he should, even if there were no helping his amnesia.

"Minako-san," Triton looked up at her and pleaded with his eyes, "tell me what's going on here, why I'm here and what you expect me to do."

She paused and looked at him with sad eyes, stroking her little cat with almost absent fingers. Her silence trailed behind her as she walked over to the vanity and stared at her own reflection. What she looked for in the depths of her own eyes Triton could not be certain, but it seemed as if she were trying to find that part of herself that allowed excuses, allowed her to be here while her other friends were searching for an answer.

"It's a very long story Trowa-kun. Gomen, nasai, Triton-kun." She set Artemis down on the table, where he sat straight and looked on her in stern manner. "It starts a thousand years ago . . ." The impossible statement rolled off her tongue in the way absolute truth does when spoken in innocence. The story that followed of her own past in the Silver Millennium and as the solider of love, Sailorvenus in the present, held Triton in a spell of dreams. He fully expected the good Queen of the Moon to destroy the evil with a wave of her wand and bring back all of the lives stolen on that far off kingdom. Instead, she died, leaving the destiny of her daughter and court to the future. Minako spoke of their lives in Tokyo, beginning with her own induction to the world of the Senshi as Sailor V. Then she explained the discovery of the Princess and the surprise they had all felt at finding their long lost Tsuki no Hime in Tsukino Usagi. He saw the tenderness at the corners of her eyes, though, and knew that Usagi lived up to the life she had known and lived on the Moon.

"But what does that have to do with me? Or the rest of those men?" Triton waited for her answer, a thick ball of anxiety growing in the bottom of his stomach. An instinct told him that this part of her story would not be as mystical as the first.

"Seven years ago, Usagi-chan vanished for a few months. Everyone was really worried about her. When she reappeared we expected her family to ground her forever, but they didn't even seem to remember she'd been gone." A faint smile passed over the delicate features of her face, and Triton thought he could see why she had come into the position of the Senshi of love. "She told us that Setsuna-san, the woman we're looking for, had taken her four thousand years into the future. She said that there was a war going on, that the Senshi and their magic had been forgotten. She met five boys there, a year younger than her except for one, and these boys were exceptional in many ways."

Here, the blonde woman stopped and looked deep into Triton's eyes, as though searching for a sign that what she had to say next would not destroy him. When he nodded, she bit her lip but continued.

"The five boys piloted amazing machines called Gundams, and were the front runners of the war. Each boy was trained to kill. Each boy would do so at a moment's notice and not feel any regret. Their names were Hiiro, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei."

"Trowa . . . that's the name you called me. And Masurao, you called him Hiiro once."

"Yes."

He blinked and pushed himself back onto the bed, pulling the sheets to cover his body. Her words were foreign to him, unbelievable. A killer, she said he was, a ruthless killer with no regard for human life.

She must have seen this last thought in his face.

"Usagi-chan told us that the boys killed without regret, but not without reason. They fought as they did because their homes, space colonies, were in danger of takeover by an organization known as OZ, and the boys wanted to save the colonies from this fate. But Setsuna-san had seen a terrible future in store for them and in violation of one of the most direct rules of her station, Setsuna-san took direct action to change that future by bringing Usagi-chan there to help them." Minako smiled and placed a hand on his knee. "And she did. Usagi-chan spoke often of you and the others, kindly. You were all very close friends, who cared for each other. You saved the colonies as you set out to do and did so without sacrificing you own lives, as Setsuna-san had been afraid would happen. You survived, and were heroes.

"You're here because of this situation. The Setsuna-san of the future felt that something was about to happen and sent the five of you here to help us." Minako hesitated. "Actually, we can only assume it was her, and that was the reason. She never spoke to us, and the Setsuna-san of this time knew nothing about it. Now we can't find her. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is because we didn't know what was about to happen, we had no warning. We couldn't stop it. Usagi-chan . . . well, you know." She didn't turn to look in the direction of the faintly feline sniffle that drifted from her vanity table. "With Usagi-chan . . . you know . . . the entire future has been changed, because he doesn't live to form Crystal Tokyo, thereby giving the governments of the future a template to go by. Your governmental system is probably very different from that of Crystal Tokyo, or from the government you were supposed to have."

"Earth is a dictatorship," Triton answered, feeling an eerie chill trickle down his spine as he spoke, "ruled by a family that is known only as the Counts. In reality, the entire government is ruled by one man, Sir Asterfel, and the rest of the family is only there for show. It's been this way for generations. The head man is always named Sir Asterfel, and he always takes over after the previous man dies. We don't know whether they are fathers and sons, or merely the member of the family most qualified to take over the job."

Minako frowned at his summary of the government of his time. Apparently she found something she didn't like about the system.

"Crystal Tokyo will be a democratic monarchy. Serenity, Usagi-chan, and her husband Endymion, will rule as NeoQueen and King, but the people will have a say in all laws passed and any governmental action taken. Usagi-chan told us that the government of your time, when she was there, was a military government, but after the war there were plans to form an alliance of sorts, in which the Earth would be considered united and the colonies would be invited to take part in the government should they so desire."

"That's very different from what I know."

"Yes, it is, and we have to figure out why. Something about the way things are in your Timeline may hold the key as to why Usagi-chan was killed now."

* * *

Masurao looked over the room in which he had been directed to stay. It felt enough like home, with its futon mattress and traditional Japanese wall hangings, so that he didn't miss his family as much as he might have. Still . . . home, if he could believe these women and what they told him, was a very long time away.

He sighed and lay flat on the futon, hands resting beneath his head and stared up at the ceiling while wondering what his little sisters were doing. Aiko and Biko always found trouble despite the warnings of their parents. Masurao suspected that their father, at least, didn't mind the girls' antics so much because they usually turned out so amusing. Usually. The turtles . . . well, that hadn't been so amusing. At six years old, though, how could they be expected to know that turtles couldn't survive as well in the toilet as in their bowl? Especially when flushed.

He chuckled lightly at the thought. He missed the twins very much and wanted to return to them. Aiko looked up to him, being the more sensitive and academically driven of the two. Biko didn't look up to anyone but herself, possessing a streak of wild independence that would either made her very popular one day or keep her socially isolated, depending on which way she chose to use her personal strength.

A knock on the flimsy panel door woke him from his daydreams.

"Hai?" It felt good to speak his native language.

"Would you like some tea, Masurao-kun?" Rei's voice sounded far away, though she stood only on the other side of the door. Masurao paused to consider this offer, and finally decided that tea would be a good decision.

"Yes, I think I would." He rose and joined Rei in the living area where she and her grandfather met for tea. She watched him with an expression of faint wistfulness as he sat in the place across from her and next to the little old man who ran the Hikawa temple. "What is it?"

Violet eyes rose to meet his, and her cheeks colored.

"It's nothing."

"That's where Yuuichiru used to sit," Grandpa said as he nodded in a sage manner, knowing look on his face. Masurao sat shocked as Rei grabbed a broom and threatened her grandfather with serious bodily harm. The old man didn't seem in the least bit disturbed by his granddaughter's behavior and sipped his tea as though nothing at all were wrong.

"Rei-san, do you think you should be treating your ojii-san like that?"

"Like what?" She tilted her head sideways and gave him a truly puzzled look. She still held the broom in her hand.

"Eh, nevermind." The three sat in silence for the next few minutes, sipping tea. Masurao glanced at the house around him, the peculiar little man, and most of all the beautiful woman with whom he would be living until this crisis worked itself out. Oh yes, he recognized her beauty. There could be no denying that. She possessed a very classic sort of beauty, with dark lashes framing her eyes and long, ebony hair that shined in the light. Perfect skin and naturally red lips completed the look that no man . . . well, no man other than that Triton guy, could resist.

Through it all he couldn't help but see light brown hair tipped with blue and black-painted lips. Rel . . . how was she? Did she miss him as he missed her, or had she forgotten him the moment he vanished to this distant place? Masurao dropped his gaze into his tea, looking there for the answers he sought.

"Masurao-kun," Rei's voice cut through his musings, and he looked up again to see her set her cup gently on the table, "do you know why you are here?"

He studied her a moment longer and thought about his situation before even attempting to answer. When he felt his mind was in order, he opened his mouth and let the words pour out.

"I can honestly say I have no idea."

Rei gave what he assumed was supposed to be a mysterious priestess smile and sighed. Her long hair fell around her face as she bowed her head and seemed to sink into a bog of thoughts he didn't think were of fluffy bunnies and gumdrops. Every movement she made came as though underwater, slow, graceful, and with purpose. When she looked up again her eyes were clear violet pools of doubt and worry.

"We thought you five were going to help us, though we didn't know ho—"

Four men crashed through the temple wall. In the flurry of the next few moments, Masurao had time only to notice that they wore all black, even over their faces. He tried to fling himself over the low table to protect Rei, but his arms were grabbed from behind. Rei scrambled away, towards her grandfather, who knocked down one of the masked intruder's despite the little man's age. Impressive, but not enough to protect him from the shock of the electric rifles the men carried. Masurao heard the shot, the whiz of the wires flying past his face, and the buzzing electricity jolting over the wires. Grandpa's pained grunt mingled with Rei's scream.

"Kuso!" Masurao struggled against the arms that held him. The man told him to be still, and the voice was low, distorted, obviously by some electronic means. "Let me go!" He didn't really expect his demand to see results, but who knew, maybe it would work.

"Not a chance."

Or not.

Then a heavy object came down on his head and the last thing Masurao heard was one of the men calling in to report the mission complete.

End Chapter Six.


	8. Chapter 7

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Minna-san, I have something very important to talk to you all about in this authors notes. The health of muses. Now, we all know that muses are fragile creatures, who need our love and fanfiction, but there is something else very important to the health of muses that most people forget, or don't even know. ::clears her throat and gets all scholarly:: Reviews. Muses are like fairies. Fairies need belief, muses need reviews. My muse is a very sick little muse, and I must plead for your help, my friends! Please, please save my muse! Leave a review! It takes so little of your time, and no money! My muse would be so grateful, and so would I! So please be a generous reader and save my muse. Thank you. Thankies to: **Marika Webster, **I miss you::huggles the new wall:: **Trenchcoat Man,** Dooby? Dooby, dooby dooby? Dooby::winks:: Inalatha or. **Fuuzaki-chan,** Little Sister! Whee! Yadda! **Tensei-san,**I'm proud of you! You took the challenge and survived! **To those who would save my muse: **::bows:: Arigatou, minna-san. Your reviews are taken with a grateful heart and put to good use.

**Disclaimers:** None of the characters are mine. So far, anyway. Hehe. There will be some random small chars in this chapter, but nothing big. Not so far anyway.

**Mended Wing – Chapter Seven**

Baker nodded to Gunther, who in turn gave a gesture to Harvey. Between the three of them they had the equivalent of about half a brain, but they were strong and obeyed orders. Alberado frowned as he watched the three lackeys nearly bash the woman's head in while carrying her through the door. Somehow they managed to get her inside and onto the hospital type bed without causing any serious harm.

"Morons," Alberado said as he walked forward and whacked Gunther upside the head. "You nearly killed them, and the boss woulda skinned us all alive."

Gunther winced and cast a half-witted glance in Baker's direction. Baker allowed his jaw to slack open as he tried to think of something to say. Harvey actually muttered, "Uuuhh . .." under his breath.

"B-But, uh, I-I thought the b-boss wanted them dead," Gunther managed to stutter.

"He does, but not yet. He wants 'em held first, to see what the others are gonna do about it! Idiot!" Alberado threw his hands in the air and shook his head, sighing a long-suffering sigh. "Then after he sees the weakness of the others, we can kill these two and then kill the rest. Got it?"

Gunther nodded. Alberado looked to Baker and Harvey. They nodded as well, Harvey a little more hesitantly than his fellow.

"Good. Now be a little more careful moving them into containment!"

* * *

Hotaru hung the phone back into its cradle and shook her head. Four of the faces staring back at her wore the dull eyes of worry and disappointment. Only Quatre did not share the anxiety the rest of them felt, and Hotaru seriously wanted to Death Reborn Revolution his spoiled ass as he sighed and rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

"The police don't know anything, and Grandpa hasn't woken up yet." Hotaru kept her eyes on Quatre as she spoke, knowing the effect her gaze often had on people, especially those who had guilt on their souls. As expected, Quatre shifted and did his best not to look her in the eye. "There were no fingerprints, and that's all the detective would tell me. Until they find the culprits, they won't release anymore information."

"Well, good then," Quatre stated and stood up, "this meeting is over and-"

Before he could finish his statement or get severely beaten for it, the door of Minako's apartment swung open with a violent kick. Everyone froze, all expecting to be fighting for their lives within the next few seconds.

"Damn it, woman!" Four humans and two cats relaxed at the sound of Wufei's annoyed voice. Then they shared a group glance and wondered what on Earth he shouted about now.

In a moment a flush-faced Wufei stomped through the living room and flopped onto the couch, arms crossed. His expression revealed a very, very ticked off Chinese man. Somehow this didn't surprise Hotaru in the least. In his wake, Makoto and Haruka came in, dragging between them a ragged and dirty figure that looked like, but couldn't be, Setsuna. No, Setsuna would never degrade herself in such a way, letting someone else carry her. She would never let herself be so filthy, so wretched. No. Not Setsuna-mama, never Setsuna-mama.

Behind the stumbling trio came Michiru, eyes wet with tears, Ami working furiously on her computer, a frightened looking Duo, and a blank Mamoru, still carrying his beloved princess. Their beloved princess. He held her as though his embrace would be enough to stop the ravages of Time. While Time herself practically poured from between her supporters onto the couch beside Wufei. The man scowled at her, and to the surprise of everyone in the room, she giggled.

"Setsuna-mama?" Hotaru took a step forward, hands trembling. Maroon eyes lifted and widened.

"Hotaru-chan . . ." Setsuna blinked and cast a searching glance about the room. She seemed to look for something none of them could see, and then not to find it. "Hotaru-chan . . . I told her not to get into any trouble. I knew I'd be gone but I didn't know I'd be gone this long. I wonder if little Hotaru-chan listened to me? Oh, she's a good little girl, I'll bet she's not giving Haruka-san and Michiru-san any trouble at all." The babbling died away as Setsuna leaned her head onto the back of the couch and stared upwards at the ceiling.

"W-What is wrong with her?" Hotaru turned to Haruka and Michiru, two of the three parents she'd known most of her new life. Haruka shrugged. Michiru shook her head. Wufei was the one who answered.

"She's insane, that's what's wrong with her."

"Wufei-kun!"

"What, Ami-san?" The tone of his voice made her flinch. "It's true. Why should we try to make it sound anything other that what it is? This girl isn't a child. It's an insult to her intelligence, if she has any, to tell her that nothing's wrong with Setsuna-san." Wufei turned his dark eyes back to Hotaru. Despite the harsh tone in which they were spoken, his words made the girl respect him more than she suspected the others did.

"Arigatou, Wufei-san," she said, bowing to him to show her appreciation. When she straightened, Wufei merely nodded to her and looked away.

"She was like this when we found her," Ami was explaining to Minako, with the man now called Triton listening. Quatre had dropped back into his seat with an annoyed scowl. None of the new arrivals had yet noticed the absence of Rei and Masurao. "When she first saw us, she thought we were demons finally come to take her to Hell. I've been working on calculating how long she was trapped in there, but I can't seem to get the right numbers."

"Forever," Setsuna murmured from her seat, still gazing at the ceiling, "Forever and a day, since it all began, from the beginning, all things did I sit through and listen but could never, never see. Never see. No. Never, never."

Everyone stared at her openly, trying to comprehend the significance behind her incoherent words. Everyone, that is, except the blonde brat. The more Setsuna babbled, the more they couldn't deny what she said, though none wished to believe it true. Hotaru felt tears stinging her eyes, but kept them from falling.

"Is . . . is she saying she's been trapped . . . since the beginning of Time?" Minako's blurry blue eyes darted from each of the other shocked nine faces surrounding her to another.

"That's exactly what she's saying," Ami choked out, "No wonder I couldn't calculate the length of time. I didn't go back far enough."

Hotaru felt the legs beneath her begin to fail. They buckled and she would have hit the floor except for someone's arms catching her. She murmured a thanks, and then, afraid it hadn't been heard, repeated "Thank you" in a louder voice. A soft tone, one she didn't recognize, returned with "You're welcome." Hotaru turned her head and saw Quatre behind her, steadying her body with kind hands, gentle as he had once been. He gave her a brief expression, what might have been a smile if it hadn't skittered away like a frightened animal. He cleared his throat, stepped away, and bowed. Hotaru nodded her head, amused even through this situation at the distinct impression that Quatre was uncomfortable. Her violet eyes followed him until he sat back into the chair.

"That bad, bad feeling came over me," Setsuna continued on in her babbling train of thought as though none of them were present, "like it did when I dropped the keys and 'Ruka was mean . . ."

Heads turned to Haruka, who shrugged and lifted one eyebrow.

"'Ruka'?" Michiru smirked.

"Hey, she's nuts. You heard Honor Boy."

"Honor Boy?!?" Wufei rose, fists clenched, ready to fight Haruka should a battle for justice be necessary. Fortunately for them all, the phone interrupted them. All fell silent, even the newcomers, as Hotaru bolted across the room.

"Moshi moshi?"

"This is Tokyo General Hospital. We were told to call this number if there was any change in the condition of-"

"Hai, hai, how is he?"

"He's conscious now. However, the electricity gave his heart quite a jolt. You really should come down to the hospital to get this information from the doctor."

"Do you know what's wrong with him."

"Well, yes."

"Then tell me now. I want to know what to expect when I get there."

A sigh from the other end. The sigh that conveys pity. "Alright. His heart's been pumping three times its normal speed. It's in danger of rupturing, or simply wearing itself out into stopping. In short, there is the good possibility that he will die."

Hotaru let the woman stop and didn't reply. No thoughts ran through her mind. Oddly, the only thing she could hear was the steady _tick, tick ,tick, tick _of the pendulum clock. She counted ten ticks before coherent thought entered her brain again. Another five ticks flew by before she could form the question she knew the woman waited for.

"How long?"

"A day, maybe two. That's if his heart doesn't slow itself, and there's always the change that it might."

"There's nothing the doctors can do?"

"No, it has to slow on its own. Medical science doesn't yet have the knowledge or the equipment to slow it from outside his body."

"I understand. Visitors?"

"Since I've already explained all of this to you, he won't be allowed visitors until regular visiting hours tomorrow morning. Then he can have only two visitors at a time."

"Alright. Arigatou."

Hotaru hung up before hearing the woman's reply. She turned to the expectant eyes that followed her, most draped in expressions of confusion. Those who recently arrived from the Realm Between Times obviously wondered what all of the excitement was over a simple phone call. Hotaru waited. Then, at last, Makoto looked about the room and noticed.

"Where are Rei-chan and Masurao-kun?"

Minako answered. "Yesterday afternoon someone broke into the Hikawa Shrine, shocked Grandpa with some sort of electrical device, and took Rei-chan and Masurao-kun." She paused, blue eyes locked on Makoto to make sure the information sunk in before moving on. "The detectives will tell us nothing except that they don't know who did it. Grandpa is in the hospital, and we've been waiting for news on his condition." At that, all eyes returned to Hotaru. She bit her bottom lip.

"He's dying. They think he'll last one day, maybe two. And they won't let us visit him until tomorrow morning."

Makoto leaned back into the far wall. Ami covered her mouth and turned away, but Hotaru saw the gentle shaking of her shoulders. Haruka and Michiru, who really didn't know Grandpa all that well, still managed sad expressions. Mamoru was lost in studying Usagi's pale face. Most of the other men remained silent out of respect for the feelings of their female friends. Most.

"What, he's an old man, right?" Quatre stood and shrugged. "He has to die sometime. Now is as good a time as any in my opinion." Everyone stared at him. Hotaru felt like smacking him across the face, no longer amused. Didn't he have any respect for anyone other than himself? The entire time he'd been with them he'd been nothing but a—

"Pompous, arrogant prick!" Makoto launched herself from the wall, stalked straight over to Quatre, and punched him. She didn't pull her punch, either. A solid right, straight to the jaw, sent the young man careening and crashing into the chair he'd been sitting in. A drumbeat of silence sounded before Quatre leaped to his feet and swung his fist at Makoto's head. This Quatre, however, did not have the training of his other form, and Makoto ducked easily, slipping around to shove him from behind. The blonde brat fell forward, flat on his face. There he stayed, fists clenched, but smart enough to know he couldn't beat the tall woman. His eyes stared coldly at the floor, filling with angry tears as he and everyone else waited for the words Makoto would throw at him.

But she said nothing. Her burst of fury spent, Makoto walked from the room. The next sound Hotaru heard was the slamming of the front door. No one spoke as they listened to the steps pounding down the hallway and the stairwell. Eyes swept the room, meeting other gazes, all except the indigo orbs of Duo, who stood in a corner and prayed silently. There was a giggle from the disheveled woman on the couch.

"She got you good!"

* * *

Quatre stayed on the floor until he heard all of the other people leave. He couldn't get up. Not after being embarrassed like that. Damn it.

At last a pair of dainty, bare feet came into his view. The person paused there before speaking. "They're all gone, now, Quatre-kun. You can get up."

He allowed his gaze to travel upward, along the slender contours of her pale legs and over her short, loose dress, finally up to her face. From conversations he knew her age to be nineteen, a full four years younger than the rest of the girls who called themselves Sailor Senshi. Though technically a grown woman, the roundness of her face leant an air of lingering childhood to her features. He suspected no matter how old she grew, Tomoe Hotaru would be the eternal child. Then his gaze locked on her eyes, those intense windows of violet that nearly glowed with power. With destruction. Death. Somewhere beneath all of that there was kindness, to be sure. But the death shone through it all, though Quatre had the sense that she would rather it did not.

"That Makoto woman doesn't like me much, does she?"

"No," Hotaru replied as she bent down to grasp his hands and help him up, "but you don't give her, or any of us, very much reason to like you. You're an ass."

He blinked, shocked for a moment at her straightforward assessment of his attitude. Then he felt the familiar scowl settling on his lips and the growl rising from deep in his throat. "No one's ever given me any reason not to be an ass. It's a survival skill where I come from."

"Not from what I hear, but then, I heard things differently."

She gestured him to sit by the vacated couch. The crazy Setsuna woman had vanished with the rest of them, to exactly where he couldn't guess. Grateful for the hospitality, Quatre sighed and sat down. Then he realized that Ami, his appointed "guardian" had left as well.

"I don't know where-"

"You'll stay here tonight, on the couch." She moved into the small kitchen area of the apartment, and he heard the tale-tell sounds of glasses clinking and pots clanging. Either she washed used dishes, or had begun preparing a dinner for them. Quatre shifted on the couch, stuffing his hands underneath him. He looked at the room, really for the first time, but saw nothing much to look at. The blue couch he sat on, the matching chair he'd been in earlier. A couple of plants sitting underneath the one window. Sheer white curtains draped over the glass, hardly enough to block any sun that decided to push through. The carpet was brown.

"Um . . ." He shifted again. "Do . . . do you need any help?" What?!? Since when did he offer to help anyone with anything?

"No, that's alright. I'm just cleaning up." Aha. "It's nearly ten o'clock, so if you're hungry you can have a quick bowl of cereal or something. I'll make a good breakfast in the morning." She poked her head around the door less entrance and winked at him. "Or at least as good a breakfast as a college student can make."

Quatre laughed nervously as she laughed. The idea of staying here, with this young woman, unnerved him more than the thought of staying at Ami's. Dr. Mizuno came across to him as an almost sexless person, with no stray thoughts in her mind. He felt certain the blue-haired one thought only of her next heart transplant. Hotaru, however, this young, attractive college age girl . . . she was quite another story altogether. Did this thought make him nervous because he was afraid of what she would do? Or because he was afraid of what HE would do?

And what would Triton think?

_What?!? When did Triton's opinion become that important to you? You just met him!_

Quatre growled to himself, distressed that his thoughts were so muddled and confused. The train of contemplation was thrown off track when a blanket hit him over the head and fell to cover his eyes.

"Hey!"

"Gomen," filtered Hotaru's giggling voice from somewhere outside the confines of the blanket. "I didn't mean to hit you." Something in her tone, however, betrayed her. Perhaps the fact that she couldn't stop laughing. Quatre jerked the blanket from his head, only to be smacked in the face with a pillow. "There, now you're set for the night." She waved to him and walked down the hallway.

The blonde rose and spread out his makeshift bed across the couch and settled in for the night. But his ears filled with the sounds of his host down the short hallway. First there were shower sounds, water falling in streams from the showerhead and hitting the porcelain tub. Wide awake, all Quatre could think about was the girl in the shower. Naked. How long had it been since his father sent that last girl to the colony? Too long. WAY too long. He shut his eyes tightly, as though doing so could wipe away the mental image of Hotaru rinsing soap lather away from her bare, pale skin. Dear Allah, it was almost an invitation! Like a movie, where the male lead saunters straight into the bathroom, already shed of clothing. The female lead is surprised, of course, and maybe annoyed at his intrusion. But he walks straight in as if he belongs there, as if this woman is already his own, and takes what he wants.

_Stop! Stop! This isn't a bad movie!_

With a groan, Quatre turned over and buried his face in the pillow. He needed to go home. He needed to go home NOW and contact his father. He would ask for a dark-haired girl this time. Yes, definitely. Dark hair, like blackest midnight. Pale skin.

Green eyes.

Green eyes bored into his mind and wouldn't leave. Green eyes glowed as the water shut off in the bathroom and Quatre sighed, finally tumbling into a fitful sleep. He dreamed of another life, with other friends, where the green eyes gazed on him with gentle love. But somewhere in the dream, always around the next corner, a shower ran with the promise of Hotaru to spur him on.

* * *

Masurao woke in the dark. He waved his hand in front of his face but saw absolute nothing. He almost panicked until Rei's voice found him from somewhere near.

"You're not blind. It's just very, very dark."

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. I woke up here, just like you did. Even if I had a watch, I couldn't check it to see how long ago." There was a strange calmness in her tone. It was the calm of someone used to such hopeless situations. Masurao hoped that somewhere in her experience with such circumstances was the knowledge of how to get out of them.

End Chapter Seven.


	9. Chapter 8

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Hey guys, guess what! I think Mended Wing is going to end up being longer than Broken Wing! The way I have the story set up right now, anyway, points in that direction. I've got some specific things I want to do, all of which will add length to the story! It may actually end up being twice the size of Broken Wing! Which means I'll expect twice the reviews::looks proudly at the 720 figure for reviews for Broken Wing:: I still can't believe I've gotten over 700 reviews for BW! You like me, you really like me! And my review numbers have gone down ever since started their evil support services, so I know it's not my writing has getting bad that keeps MW from reaching the same standing. Yee! Thankies: **Trenchcoat Man,** Aishiteru and purple penguins. **Marika Webster,** Dooby, and peas, and the new wall! **Fuuzaki-chan,** When in doubt, pluck a chicken. **Tensei-san,**I tawt I taw a puddy tat!**Girl-chama, **where are you? **Rashaka-chan,**WHERE ARE YOU?!? Where are my mile-long reviews::sniffles::

**Disclaimer:** Aw, you guys know by now I dun own em.

**Mended Wing – Chapter Eight**

The door opened. Masurao blinked at the sudden intrusion of light into his dark world. His eyes squinted almost shut of their own volition, and he couldn't see the people who made the shuffling sounds.

"Hey!" he called to them, "Hey! Who are you people? What do you want? Where are we?"

Only their feet hitting the floor answered him. Not like he really expected them to tell him exactly where he was and how to get out should he feel like escaping. That only happened in bad movies and books.

His eyes were beginning to get used to the light when he heard Rei shout and a struggle ensue somewhere to his right. He cried out to her, trying to get her to answer him so he could find her, but she either couldn't hear him or couldn't waste the effort to reply. Masurao crawled towards her voice and the sounds of frustration being given off by the men. Whatever they were trying to do, and Masurao hoped against the worst, Rei wasn't giving them much of a chance to do it.

His eyes caught the blurred vision of a foot coming towards his face, but not in time to block it. He fell backward into the wall. Masurao felt something streaming down over his lips and knew his nose was bleeding. It throbbed, beating out its own painful rhythm. Shadows moved past him, carrying a kicking, fighting form with them. Then the door closed, shutting him away from light and freedom again.

And Rei was gone.

* * *

Luna watched Mamoru. Mamoru watched Usagi's body. Somehow he had managed to make Setsuna coherent enough to form a Time shield around the body so it wouldn't decompose while they tried to figure out what to do. But Mamoru had done no thinking, or none that he shared with the rest of them, at least. All of his thinking had been done behind closed mental doors. No one knew if he would come out of this stupor in time to help them do anything.

Luna felt like walking up to him and scratching him good and hard. On any other occasion she might have, but in this case she could no more conjure the energy to scratch than he could to leave Usagi's side. So the cat turned and skulked from the room.

The apartment felt so empty, sounded so silent. Usagi did not meet her in the kitchen to offer the sugar stars Luna loved so much. Pots did not bang together to announce another one of the woman's cooking binges, where she somehow got the idea she could actually cook. The thought made the cat want to laugh, yet lie down and sobs at the same time. _Usagi-chan, where are you? Are you still in that body, just waiting to be brought out? Or has your soul already gone to Heaven? Is all of our planning in vain?_

"Here, kitty."

Luna felt her fur automatically lift on her back at the voice. She knew who it belonged to, but its still unfamiliar quality brought out the feline instincts in her. She turned, crouched on her belly, and looked into the smiling indigo eyes of the man who now called himself Father Duo. He awed her because of how highly Usagi had once spoken of him, but frightened her because of what he had become without her. Duo looked on her with the same mixture of awe and fear.

"You are a beautiful cat," he told her, "but truthfully I haven't figured out yet whether you are a miracle of God or a demon of Satan."

"I am neither," Luna huffed as she straightened herself into what she hoped was a regal stance. "I am a person, just like you. I come from the planet Mau, and served as Royal Advisor to Queen Serenity XVIII of the Moon Kingdom." With that said she licked her paw gracefully and stuck her nose in the air in true feline fashion. "And I know I'm beautiful."

"Yeah," said Artemis from the living room doorway, "well, Miss Beautiful, you and the priest better get in here."

Artemis led the way into the living room, where Ami and Mamoru stood toe-to-toe among the other assembled Senshi and pilots, staring each other down, both wearing faces of the utmost fury. Mamoru's dark eyes had swirled black as they often did when most enraged and his fists balled at his sides. This display did not discourage the smaller Senshi. She stood straight as any proud tree, blue-black eyes steely with her determination not to back down, even from the wrath of her prince.

"I have the big key-stick!" Setsuna bounced on the couch, clapping her hands together. Luna shuddered, imagining the proud, stern woman Setsuna had been in order to erase the disturbing picture of what she had become. "I can do it, I can, I can go back!"

"Go . . . back?" Father Duo's brows furrowed as his religion-saturated mind tried to fathom those words, but Luna knew immediately what the Guardian meant.

"We can't!" Ami shouted, eyes narrowing even as Mamoru's did the same. "The law-"

"That doesn't matter!" The Earth Prince shouted in return through gritted teeth, "We all know Usako wasn't supposed to die! We'd only be setting things right!"

"That doesn't change the fact that there are cosmic laws against changing the past! This law was instituted by Father Time himself! We can't just go against Father Time!"

"Like Hell we can't."

"Haruka!" Michiru looked on her lover with wide, anger-filled aqua eyes, probably the first time Luna or anyone had seen her angry. Haruka scowled but didn't take the comment back. Father Duo stumbled in stricken terror. Luna could only assume that he'd finally figured out what the conversation was about.

_I hope your Lord will save you, Duo. I'm not sure the Senshi can anymore._

* * *

The conversation escalated. The Senshi fell into their more natural Japanese, which Father Duo couldn't understand. He looked to the others, noticing Triton's blank looked, but the expression of total concentration on Wufei's face. Quatre faced away, trying to seem disinterested, but Duo noted the alert way he stood and the way he leaned slightly towards the argument. He gave a short bark-laugh just before Ami turned to address the Japanese-impaired.

"Duo, Triton, we've decided to vote on whether to allow Setsuna-san to change the past and prevent Usagi-chan's death. Since this will affect you, you four will receive a vote as well."

"But," Duo heard himself blurt before he could help himself, "what about the other two? They aren't here, and shouldn't they get a vote? Shouldn't we try to save them first?" This only began to cover for his real fear, that any action they might take towards resurrecting this woman would be the very work of the devil and condemn all their souls.

"If we stop Usagi-chan's death it will change everything that's happened from that point on. Rei-chan and Masurao-kun would never have been taken." Ami explained this in the cool, calm manner of one who is used to explaining difficult ideas to people less intelligent than herself.

"And Grandpa wouldn't be dying," Hotaru murmured from a safe corner of the room. She sat there with her legs drawn close to her chest, arms draped loosely around them.

"I vote we do it," Mamoru said, cutting off any more discussion. His stance suggested painful death for anyone who would oppose him.

"I vote against," Ami shot back without hesitation, her own manner dangerous.

"I vote against as well," said Minako, not flinching under Mamoru's hateful glare.

"Let's do it," Haruka growled, "There are some times when the rules need to be broken, and this is one of them."

"I agree." Wufei stood. "An innocent woman has been murdered. I've spent enough time around these people to know they are honest and deserve respect. If they say that her life will have significant impact on the future, I believe them. The rule must be broken."

"That's three for and two against," Ami stated with a frown.

"I'm for it," Makoto said with a deadly gleam in her hard, emerald eyes. "Let's get her back. I don't care how."

Michiru shook her head. "No. We're Sailor Senshi and we do what is right by the rules established. To do anything else would be a step towards the darkness we try so hard to fight."

Duo nodded. He felt, since he was allowed a voice, that now would be the time to raise it.

"Yes. Goodness does what it can in the right ways. We can't do something evil for the right reason. It's no less evil."

"That's four for and four against, a tie so far." Ami sounded a bit more relieved, though with the tightening of her features Father Duo saw the powerful self-restraint she practiced. She would wait until the vote was officially over.

"Who says Father Time gets to make all the rules?" Quatre spat in true arrogant fashion. "Is he so much wiser than all of us just because he's Father Time? I say let's go for it."

Those who championed the cause in favor of cosmic law held their collective breaths as the count rose to five for and four against. Triton and Hotaru remained the only ones unaccounted for. Whoever voted last had the potential to decide all should the other vote against. Duo clutched his bible close and watched their faces. Both were silent, lost deep in heavy thought from the looks of things. No one dared move. Except Quatre, of course, who maintained a calculated air of cool indifference.

"I vote against," Triton finally said. Duo saw guilt flicker across the other man's face, only for a moment, but there. Duo dealt in guilt, had seen too much of it not to recognize the emotion when it manifested. He would talk to Triton, later, yes, definitely.

"Hotaru-chan?" Ami, as well and the others assembled, looked to the youngest of their number. "It's a tie, five to five. We need your vote."

The girl turned her violet eyes up to the rest of them, showing an anguish none expected. From his place, Quatre started and Duo thought the blonde actually began to move towards her. Then she spoke and Quatre was back in his placed as though never moved.

"I can't make a decision like this." She lifted a hand to stop their protestations. "No, I can't. I loved Usagi-san as much as the rest of you, and I really want her back, I really do." She paused, looking to the ground. Then her body shook and her eyes squeezed close. "But I am living proof that some things shouldn't be tampered with. I am the embodiment of the forbidden, and that makes me think Father Time knew what he was doing when he set the rules against Time travel. So I don't know what to do. I don't know how to vote." Hotaru looked at them all with her pained eyes then stood and ran from the apartment. Without warning or explanation Quatre jumped to follow her. Their twin footsteps trailed out the door and down the stairs. Duo wondered what to expect next. Setsuna provided.

"That's okay." She giggled. "I forgot how anyway!"

* * *

Hotaru felt a hand close about her arm just as she reached the bridge. Kami-sama, the bridge. How many times had any one of them come to this place to stare down at the water for how many different reasons? Usually sorrow or anger. She never knew anyone to come to the bridge for any good reason.

"Hotaru-chan," said Quatre's voice in that strange accent he had. His grammar and knowledge of Japanese words were flawless, but his accent left much to be desired. The accent hid anything he may have been feeling under his words, helped by his icy tone.

"What?" She tried to jerk her arm from his grip, but instead he only pulled her closer. Quatre wrapped his arms around her. Clumsily, as though he'd never done it before, but it was a hug nonetheless. "What are you doing?" she murmured into his shirt, sniffling miserably.

"Nothing," he replied, not sounding convinced. "I don't know. Something I wish someone had done for me at least once." His voice drifted to her ear, filled with such suffering Hotaru forgot momentarily her own sadness and lifted her eyes to meet his. Such a sad blue, not bright and sky-like as Usagi's had been. Hotaru saw no real hate in those eyes, except a deep self-loathing. The rest was pain, simple and honest pain.

"What happened to you, Quatre-kun? What happened to make you such a cold, miserable person? I know there's someone else beneath that arrogance, another Quatre who begs to be released."

Quatre's arms fell to his sides. The pain she saw in his eyes fell back behind the familiar veil of disdain she knew now to be a lie.

"There is no other Quatre. There's just me. No matter what you people say, I'm the only Quatre that ever existed. I remember my past clearly, I remember it, every second, even in my dreams, in vivid color that would leave you shocked and breathless." His lips curled into a hateful scowl. "I wish I didn't." Then he stepped away from her, shaking his head. "I just came out here to . . . I don't know. I guess to make you feel better for being such a 'weak woman' as Wufei would say. I didn't expect or want an interrogation." He turned, but this time Hotaru reached to stop him. Her hand slipped under the long sleeve of his jacket and closed about his wrist. She gasped at what her fingers felt. Quatre tensed.

"Quatre-kun . . ."

"No."

"What have you done? When?"

He snatched his arm away from her, able to do so because of his strength.

"A long time ago. No need to worry about that. My sister saved me. As always." The shadow on his face told her that he didn't appreciate his sister's efforts. He didn't walk away though. Instead he went to the side of the bridge, as did all people who passed by with weight on their souls. The bridge side seemed to attract wayward hearts and all their troubles. "It's not easy to be the last of thirty children, thirty kids all created in a laboratory, birthed from vials instead of wombs. My mother died not long after I was created. Maybe if she had lived things would have been better. The sisters that knew her used to tell me stories about how kind and compassionate she was. When they had time for me." He sighed and put his hands on the stone. Hotaru moved beside him, placing a gentle hand on his back. She remained silent in hopes he would continue. "It didn't take me long to realize they all hated me for some reason. I never did find out why, but in all their gazes there was a cruel spark of hatred. I can't imagine what I could have done to make them all hate me so much." A sob shook his frame, trembled him from the inside because he refused it release. Tears perched on his eyelids, pushing to get out, but he held them there, imprisoned with the emotions he'd kept inside so long.

"My father hated me too. I don't know why he never just killed me and got it over with. Instead he sent me to a colony on the very edge of civilization with only my sister Iraya to keep me company. She's a doctor. That's how she saved me every time." He stopped to take a deep breath and turn his gaze from the water upwards to the starry sky. "Five times. I tried to kill myself five times, the fifth just before I came here." His left hand moved to circle about his right wrist, the thumb passing lightly over the scar. Hotaru moved closer and he put out both wrists to show her what she'd only felt before. Two identical white scars. The wounds had been deep to create scars that could be felt so easily. "This was the third time."

Hotaru sighed shakily. Why should such a beautiful man, so capable of kindness, be forced to endure a life such as the one he'd described? But she understood. She understood the cruelties that life could throw at unsuspecting and undeserving people while sparing those with evil in their souls for better destinies.

"I am Death," she told him. His blue eyes turned to her, confusion lighting them in a way anger and self-hatred never did. "Of all the Senshi, I was chosen to be Sailorsaturn. My powers as a Senshi deal only with destruction. As a result I am sheltered, taken care of by the other Senshi, but ultimately they fear me. If there ever comes a battle they can't win, then I will be forced to destroy Earth in order to save it." Would he desert her now? Was he afraid? "That's the thing you see in my eyes that unnerves you, that makes you want to run from me." _But please don't run. I need a friend who won't run._

"It doesn't make me want to run." He turned fully to her, his blue eyes looking down to her with a sudden flash of pure clarity. "It draws me to you."

Silence. After those words Hotaru heard nothing but the flowing of the water and the wind rushing past her ears. The harsh sounds of the city didn't make it to her, only the gentler sounds of nature. Somewhere she certainly heard a star shoot, begging for a wish to be made. Somewhere in the universe surely a star was shooting, even if she couldn't see it. Wishes still applied on those unseen stars. What would she wish for, though?

Before she could formulate a half-coherent wish, she felt the softness of Quatre's lips on her mouth, pressing lightly and with a confidence she hadn't known he possessed. Then his hands were on either cheek, cupping her face gently. Hotaru didn't dare move, didn't understand completely what was happening, and couldn't think straight enough to decide if she liked it or not.

When he released her face and her lips, Hotaru blinked at him dumbly. Her mouth worked but no sounds came out. Quatre actually blushed and looked away.

"I'm sorry."

"N-No," she finally managed to force out, "it's alright. It's fine. I . . . I just wasn't . . . expecting . . ."

"No, really, I shouldn't have done that." Acid laced his tone. Hotaru looked up to see that hard shell erected once more around him. "It's just been a while. You know. You're just here."

She knew this time that shell wasn't going to come down again. Hotaru sighed.

"I'm here, Quatre, if you ever need me. I'm a friend, whether you believe it or not." She stepped close to him to close the gap he'd made when he released her. Her arms rose and tightened around him in the hug he'd wanted for so long. She felt his body stiffen as it had when she felt his scars, but he didn't try to get away this time. Hotaru let go and turned. She left him there by the bridge. Without even once turning to look back, because she knew that he wouldn't jump. He still hated himself. He still pitied himself. But something else had forced itself into his small, cold heart and Hotaru had faith that it alone would keep him from killing himself.

She smiled a little as she walked towards her apartment. She felt much better that when she'd left Mamoru's.

After all, she'd found a friend who wouldn't run.

End Chapter Eight.


	10. Chapter 9

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Anyone really angry yet? Hehe. Don't worry, I'll be setting things right in the end… or will I::cackles insanely:: You'll all just have to wait and see what evils await you within the story! HAHAHA! **Trenchcoat Man: **Keep that conduit open! Astral realm ahoy! And there's a REASON all his sisters hate him. Geez. ::sighs dramatically:: **Marika Webster: **Bleh… feh…**Fuuzaki-chan: **How's that chicken?** Tweety:** No diamonds::wails::

Hey look, I'm answering questions again! **Za Kaze no Nisou: **All shall be explained in time, my child. Patience. Patience is the key. And fudge bunnies. **Girl-chama:**Yes, yes it was a big step for me. However, a somewhat necessary one in this story, for reasons not everyone will understand. Hehe. I just love being obscure, don't I? **Sakura yuy: **Putting emotion into my stories is something I always try to do. If you are taking notice, then I must be doing something right. Thank you. **Trenchcoat Man:** Oh, feh. We talked about this. I just figured I'd feed your ego by giving you another mention. Hehe. ;o) **Tasie:**Erm… well… Usagi-chan won't be coming back for a little while yet. I'm actually trying to see how long I can go WITHOUT her! BWHAHAHA! **Hime:**If they don't get Usagi back then Crystal Tokyo will never exist, the GBoys will be permanently screwy, and eventually the Universe will implode. **Anon:**Is this your name, or are you anonymous? Well, anyways, anyone who knows me knows the answer to this Q and T dilemma… you could ask Girl-chama, Trenchcoat Man, Marika Webster, Tensei or Fuuzaki. Any of them can tell you. Hehe.**Static Scythe: **You there! No biting your arms off on MY watch! Am I going to have to put you in a cage?

**Disclaimer:** Gundam Wing and Sailormoon… not mine. Deal with it. Fudge bunnies courtesy of Fuuzaki-chan.

**Mended Wing – Chapter Nine**

Hell sure was funny. Hell didn't really seem so bad, actually. It was very familiar, with familiar sights, and places, and people and couches. The buildings certainly didn't look like they were on fire. Then again, wasn't Hell a Christian thing? She wasn't sure whether she was Christian or not. In fact, she was pretty sure she wasn't. Okay, well, that took Hell out of the picture then, didn't it?

Then what? This wasn't Nirvana, no, not Nirvana, not Nirvana at all because she didn't have any sense of enlightenment at all. Heaven? Christian again, and anyway, Heaven was supposed to be nicer. Clouds, angels, harps, haloes, that sort of thing. This was just plain old Tokyo the way she remembered it in her more lucid moments. But it couldn't really be Tokyo, because Tokyo was in the place for living people, and she had to be dead. Death was the only way she would have ever escaped that dark place, because no one knew she was there.

Oh, was she still there after all? Was this another hallucination? Of course. That's why she was back in Tokyo, because she wasn't REALLY back in Tokyo, she just thought she was. Though in Tokyo Usagi was dead, and it was Usagi's death that trapped her in that place to begin with and the five boys had been there too, right before she couldn't remember but those five boys were different than these five boys but they were the same and why couldn't she seem to remember how to work the key-stick thingie? The key-stick thingie was the key . . . hehehehe, the key-stick was the key! Oh where oh where did the sanity go, oh where oh where could it be?

"Setsuna-san!"

She blinked and looked towards the Ami-hallucination. Couldn't be the real Ami-chan, of course, because the real Ami-chan lived in the real Tokyo while the real Setsuna was trapped trapped trapped in her own Time Gate with no way to get out out out and living in a hallucination Tokyo place.

"Setsuna-san, please, you've got to snap out of this. We need you." Ami-hallucination sighed and placed a bowl-hallucination in front of Setsuna on the table-hallucination.

"I need the key-stick. I need to go to Crystal Tokyo and warn the NeoQueen and King . . ." Yes, yes, yes! The Black Moon Family! They were in the past! Going after Small Lady! Setsuna was sure the NeoQueen could hear through all that crystal, and she'd want to be kept updated. Setsuna had to get the key-stick back!

"Setsuna-san, there is no Crystal Tokyo. Not without Usagi-chan. Usagi-chan is dead, and we need to get her back before you can go to Crystal Tokyo."

"Dead?" That's right. Usagi dead. No Small Lady. No Crystal Tokyo. Who would turn away the Black Moon Family? Or the invasion from Ikatha? Or save Queen Venus from the attentions of that horrid Prince of Ooggfel?

"Yes, dead." Ami-hallucination leaned close, placing a hand on Setsuna's. It was tight, stern. Setsuna squirmed, wanting to get away. "We can't disobey the laws of Father Time and go back to stop her death, so we need some way to bring her back now, before your Time Shield collapses because of your mental state. Onegai, Setsuna-san, give us something to work with! Anything to go on! Help us!"

Help? Help how? How could she help when something was already done? Why hadn't she stopped this before it happened? That was okay, or at least there was no law against it. Yet. But Father Time could be a real prick, and obsessive about his rules, so if he found out that she took liberties with the loopholes, well she'd be looking for a new permanent position and she didn't have the qualifications to be anything other than what she was, the Guardian of Time that is.

"The Eye of Hecate!"

"The . . . what?" Ami-hallucination, which may or may not be an actual hallucination, but Setsuna figured she'd better help just in case.

"The Eye of Hecate. On the Moon. Big cave." How how how to say this? Setsuna paused and mustered all of the sanity she could in order to make a coherent statement. "Hecate is the Goddess of the Dark Moon. Not evil, just dark. The Eye of Hecate is . . . is . . . very powerful. It grants immortality, or mystic knowledge, or the gift of one miracle to a heart pure enough to deserve it. The Eye could grant a miracle for us." Setsuna blinked as a shadow on the opposite wall shivered. My, what brilliant hallucinations her mind came up with. "Queen Serenity's great-great-great-great-great grandmother finally hid the Eye in a cave just west of the Moon Palace to protect it from . . . from . . . those people . . . the ones who wanted to use it for evil, and they could, 'cause purity of heart doesn't necessarily mean pure goodness. And there are . . . are . . ." It got harder to remember with each second that passed, harder and harder to . . . "Challenges. One for . . . each of the . . . Inner Court."

Her small bit of sanity fell away and Setsuna forgot again where she was.

* * *

Ami left Setsuna babbling in the kitchen to her bowl of cereal. Since revealing the knowledge of this "Eye of Hecate," the Guardian's words had degenerated into incoherent clumps of jumbled words. Some dealt with Crystal Tokyo and the NeoQueen or other shadows of the now uncertain future. Others were painful reminders of the cold darkness Setsuna had endured locked inside the Time Gate. Others at last made no sense whatsoever. Ami took her computer into the living room to escape the woman's grim insanity.

Though she had to admit to herself that caring for Setsuna was vastly easier than dealing with the arrogant version of Quatre Raberba Winner.

Fingers flying over memorized keys, Ami accessed the Mercury computer's history files, specifically anything downloaded from the Moon's main computer just before its destruction. A brief memory of sparks, flames, and panic seized her before Ami shook it off. Her eyes settled on the screen. Blue letters read REQUEST RESULTS: 0. Ami frowned. Could Setsuna be mistaken? Had that seeming moment or clarity been nothing more than cleverly disguised incoherence? She sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose, behind which a dull pounding had begun.

Eye of Hecate. A talisman? A jewel of power like the Silver Crystal? Or simply the ramblings of an unbalanced woman?

Eye of Hecate.

_Hecate is the Goddess of the Dark Moon . . . _

_Goddess of the Dark Moon . . ._

Ami typed in a historical search for any past Moon Queen named Hecate who might have called herself the Queen of the Dark Moon. Meanwhile she tried to drive away memories of Nehelenia and her horrid mirrors.

REQUEST RESULTS: 0.

Ami gave a low groan of frustration.

_Goddess . . ._

Ami blinked and squinted at the screen as if doing so would drive away her insane notion. Indeed it was a notion as insane as the Guardian. Despite her best efforts, however, her fingers moved and shifted her search from historical files to those listed under mythology.

REQUEST RESULTS: 1.

By Kami-sama, it actually worked. She clicked the number and pulled up the found file.

_Hecate: On Earth, one of the Greek moon goddesses, said to rule the dark side of the moon. Her power grew with the waning moon and was at its fullest during the New Moon. Hecate's power over the Dark Moon did not make her evil. The moon was the source of mystical knowledge, especially the dark half. Hecate ruled over magic, and was often called the Queen of Witches. She is pictured as an old wise woman standing at a crossroads, also her domain. Crossroads represent choices, and as an old wise woman, Hecate represents the wisdom to make the right choices. _

_In the Moon Kingdom there are stories of Queen Hecate, the legendary second daughter of Queen Selene, the first of the Moon Queens, before the traditional name of Serenity. Hecate was said to be strong and stern, and very powerful. The stories say that Diana, Selene's first daughter and heir, was killed in the invasion of the Moon by Jupiter, and Hecate returned from her self-exile on Mars to take her sister's place. According to legend, it was then Hecate, not Diana, who fought Jupiter and eventually formed the truce that led to the forming of the peaceful Silver Millennium. It is rumored that she created the Silver Imperium Crystal after the invasion of the Jupiter army in order to assure that future generations of Moon Queens would have a weapon to defend their kingdom. However, the existence of Queen Hecate or the stories of her rule cannot be proven. It is only hearsay that gives us these stories, though all of the histories claim that Diana lived to form the Silver Millennium. The true origins of the Silver Crystal remain unknown._

_Another legend involving Hecate is that of her wish-granting talisman, the Eye of Hecate. It is said that when she knew she was about to die, Queen Hecate created the Eye to carry all of her power after her death. The Eye can grant immortality, knowledge of the deepest mystical secrets, or the gift of one miracle to one person of the purest heart. Hecate gave this to her successor, in case a time should come when the power of the Silver Crystal would not be enough to save the Moon Kingdom. The next Queen, Isis, hid the Eye of Hecate somewhere in the Kingdom, where it has yet to be found if it exists. There are supposed to be five obstacles in the journey to find the Eye, with failure of any challenge met with immediate death. The rewards for passing all five challenges are greater than the risk._

_Of course, none of this can be proven either._

Ami took a deep breath and sat back in her chair to assimilate all that she'd read. Myth and legend, every bit of it. Not one piece of true history, except for the mentioning of Queens Selene and Diana. Ami remembered those from her snippets of recalled history lessons on Mercury. Selene was the first Queen of the Moon, and her daughter and successor was Diana. Never had Hecate been mentioned, not once. Later she had discovered the fictional moon goddess still worshipped by some of the Earthians, but never thought there might be an actual connection to the Moon Kingdom.

Every pore of her scientific being screamed against this. They couldn't rely on mythical knowledge to lead their search to bring back Usagi, they simply couldn't. The entry itself had said twice that none of it could be proven. Stories. Gods. Setsuna, in her madness, had given Ami a useless piece of information.

_Is it really?_

She stood and began to pace, trying to outrun the crazy thoughts that wouldn't be outrun. If there stood any chance of this Eye of Hecate being real, and being the key, could they really pass it up? It might be the only thing that could help, seeing as the only other thing capable of it was the Silver Crystal and Usagi was the only one who could use it. Speaking of the Crystal, surely it had been a myth for a long time itself, something no one would ever believe really existed unless they saw it. All myths and legends had some truth to them, because they wouldn't be so powerful unless based on something that had truly affected the culture that created them. The Silver Crystal, according to this legend, had been created by Hecate and it was real enough. So why shouldn't the Eye of Hecate be just as real?

Ami sat down and read the entry again. Five challenges, just as Setsuna had said. Wait, no, she'd said there was a challenge for each of the Inner Court. That would make four, not five. The blue-haired doctor deliberated on this. Did this mean a fifth challenge existed for Sailormoon, the Princess of the Moon Kingdom? It would make sense considering that she would be the most likely person to use the Eye. Or could it mean something totally different? She sighed, unable to fathom this complication. She knew one thing, however. No matter its origin, this lead was the only thing they had.

Ami rose again and crossed the room to her telephone. She passed the door to the kitchen and glanced to see Setsuna splashing her spoon in the milk, maroon eyes floating over the room but not really focused on it. With a shake of her head Ami picked up the receiver, paused to decide who to call, and dialed.

"Moshi, moshi?"

"Minako-chan, can I talk to Triton-kun for a moment?"

"Uh, sure," Minako's voice lilted with her confusion. There came muffled sounds over the line and finally Triton's voice came flowing through.

"Ami-san?" He sounded just as confused as Minako, and for good reason.

"Triton-kun, I'm sorry about this but I want an objective opinion before I tell everyone else. I thought one of you five would be best, and you're the most objective one I could think of."

"I'll help if I can." His voice was so much nicer than it had been before. Not that he hadn't been nice. Just . . . well . . . there. This was a boy that could be anybody's friend if they'd let him.

So Ami proceeded to tell him what Setsuna had said, then what the computer came up with. She explained spot portions of Moon Kingdom and Silver Millennium history for him, as well as some other potentially pertinent myths. He listened so silently she could almost believe he had reverted to normal Trowa. When she finished the line remained quiet, and after a moment she said he name to be certain he was still there.

"I think it's just a story. That's all legends really are. I mean, they're based on a truth, but how long ago was this? By now the truth has been covered over and weeded out so much there's probably hardly any of it left." His voice wavered strangely as he spoke, "I don't think it's even worth telling the others about."

Ami paused. She wanted another opinion, but hadn't expected him to completely blow the idea off without even considering it. His words had the rushed quality of an excuse. She had the feeling there was something Triton wasn't saying underneath the words he _had_ said.

"Arigatou, Triton-kun, but I have to tell them even if we don't follow this course of action. I can't keep a possible solution to myself. I only wanted to know your opinion. Thank you for it again. Please put Minako-chan back on the line."

Ami waded in her thoughts as she waited for Minako's voice to return. Suddenly she didn't trust Triton, and she really couldn't pinpoint the exact reason why.

"Ami-chan?"

Ami proceeded to tell Minako what she had discovered, without mentioning Triton's condemning of the idea. The blonde of course wanted to jump on the opportunity immediately.

"There's only one problem," Ami reminded her, "There are five challenges to get to the Eye of Hecate, if it even exists. Setsuna-san mentioned one for each of the Inner Court. That's four, which doesn't fit. However, there's the possibility that the fifth challenge is—"

"For the Moon Princess!" Minako wailed.

"Possibly. Or it could be a challenge for the four together. Either way, we need all four of the Inner Senshi in order to even search for the Eye. Which means-"

"Rei-chan."

"Right. There is no more chance for us to simply change the kidnapping by preventing Usagi-chan's death. We have to rescue Masurao-kun and Rei-chan NOW."

End Chapter Nine.


	11. Chapter 10

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Yes, there IS some action coming! Whoo hoo! Maybe even in this chapter! Alright::does a little happy dance:: I know, it's taken a while to get this chapter out. I'm sorry, but so much has been going on in my life, school and work the least emotionally trying of them. I'll try to do better with the coming chapters!

**Sakura Yuy:** Thanks for complimenting my job with the myth, and I'm sorry again this took so long to get out! **Winter:** Quatre is NOT cheating on Trowa. Trowa does not exist. Triton does, and Quatre and Triton are not and never have been together. Therefore Quatre cannot be cheating on him. **Tsuki Doriimaa: **Duo almost became an asshole biker guy! With short hair! And tattoos! But then I thought, nah, better make him a priest who craps his pants every time a girl comes near. And made Relena the biker!

Thanks go to: **Marika Webster, Trenchcoat Man, Fuuzaki, Tensei, Ilirial and ALS, and Isis. You people are those who mean the most to me in this world, and I don't know where I would be without you.**

**Disclaimer:** Aw crap, you know none of the characters belong to me. All hail the great and powerful Tokyo Tower! For all things happen at Tokyo Tower, and all things are drawn to Tokyo Tower!

**Mended Wing – Chapter Ten**

The door opened. Rei blinked, awake suddenly. Several shadows slipped through the darkness and grabbed her shoulders before her mind had cleared sleep away enough to protest. She heard the angry grunt of Masurao being shaken awake, and his struggles to break free. He shouted a few colorful expletives, the type only someone fluent in Japanese would understand. Rei would have laughed, if the situation hadn't called for more drastic action.

"Shaddup, both of you!" The shadow who spoke rapped Rei on the head. If he'd been trying to knock her unconscious, he failed and managed only to make her really angry. "We sent out a ransom note to your buddies, to meet us tonight at Tokyo Tower if they want you back." The man laughed, and Rei knew that an exchange was not the plan on these men's minds. More likely they were simply trying to draw the rest of the Senshi into a battle, one that no doubt they thought they couldn't lose.

"Baka! They won't be there!" Rei tugged at her arms to wrench them from her captor's grip. He only hugged tighter and laughed louder.

"Yes they will. They need you, you see." This voice came from the doorway, from a figure who stood straight and spoke much more concisely than any of the men who'd spoken before. "Your friends have come across a small barrier in their plans, and need you to help them get around it. Or through it, as the case may be." The figure chuckled, the refined chuckle of a man of aristocratic lineage.

"You want us to take 'em now, Boss?" asked the one who held the squirming form of Masurao.

"Yes, but please be careful with them. We wouldn't want to show up with broken merchandise, would we?"

The group of them laughed as they dragged their two captives out of the dark room.

* * *

"You're staying here."

"I refuse!"

"We don't have time to argue about this!"

"Then you cannot stop me from following you!"

Venus stepped forward and thrust an arm between the two warring parties. Jupiter and Wufei both gave her looks that might have been the cause of her untimely death had she not possessed the advantage of being a Senshi. A flash of memory overcame her for a moment, of making a similar gesture to separate Mars and Jupiter back then, during that last, most trying time of their kingdom.

_"We need to strike from the rear, attack where they're least expecting us!"_

_"Don't you understand, Jupiter? It's over! We're all dead, just like Endymion and Serenity! We just don't know it yet!"_

Venus hadn't truly been the leader of the Senshi since that day, or night, whichever it had been. She'd died, and in her new life she gave over leadership to the newest Senshi, Sailormoon, knowing the blonde was her princess in a new guise. Oh gods, how they needed Sailormoon now. The Senshi of Love didn't know if she could lead again, after so long out of the captain's chair.

"Sailorjupiter," she said, turning to her taller comrade, "you've been leading since Usagi-chan . . . well, you've done a good job but it's time I took over from here. If you remember." She paused to make certain she saw the glint of recognition in the other's eyes. Then she turned to the rest, who waited to see who would win and what would happen. "This is Senshi business. If you were yourselves, or rather the versions of you that we knew, you would not only be invited to come along but would be a great asset. However, you are not Gundam pilots, and the only one of you who might be able to help us would be Wufei. So Wufei will be allowed to come along." She ignored the Chinese man's smug expression. "The rest of you will stay here, with Hotaru."

Hotaru, who would not henshin and join the rest unless the situation became desperate enough, nodded in agreement. Father Duo, Quatre, and Triton gave each other looks that clearly expressed their relief at being left behind. Wufei stepped forward, fists clenched.

"Then let us go to this, 'Tokyo Tower'."

"Alright," Jupiter growled, "Let's see how well you can keep up, then."

Venus sighed. Of course they would travel the high road, the tops of buildings and over roads. Their Senshi strength allowed them to do this, and taking a car or walking would be next to impossible in the early evening traffic. No one heading home from their rough day at work would be likely to look up and see six Senshi leaping across buildings. However, no matter how strong he was or skilled, Venus doubted Wufei would be able to perform the same feats they could.

"Why don't you just carry him?" She asked Jupiter, voice thin with exasperation. Really, the constant battle between these two had gotten quite old.

"A woman? Carry me? I doubt it."

"See, Venus, he doesn't want to be carried." Jupiter smirked, knowing very well what would come next. "So let him follow us on foot. I'm sure he'll do well enough." She grinned in a way that could only be described as maniacal and Venus sighed. Well, at least this bit about women being weak could be handled once and for all.

"Alright, fine. Wufei, you can try to keep up, but if you can't then one of us WILL carry you."

He humphed. "There shall be no need. I shall be slowing down to allow for your laggard pace. I do not need to be carried."

* * *

Wufei looked up at the pony-tailed woman who cradled him in her arms like so much laundry and made no attempt to hide his awe. She ran like the wind, faster, they all did, leaping up to rooftops and across buildings, as if the laws of gravity did not apply to them. As if they had never known the restriction of being bound to the ground. The strength they hid in those feminine bodies could not belong to mortals. If not mortals, then were they angels or demons?

_You've been spending too much time talking with that damned priest._

Below them on the streets honked the horns of thousands of early-evening drivers. From the lack of surprised yelps, Wufei assumed that the building-hoppers had not been spotted. Who would think to look upwards for running people anyway?

He turned his head forward. Ahead, Venus and Uranus charged. Somewhere behind followed the rest, but not too far behind. And far ahead, with the sunlight twinkling on the sea at either side, stood the mysterious Tokyo Tower. He'd heard the girls speak of this place with a special mix of awe and fear. Things tended to happen here, they said, things both for good and evil. They seemed to think this Tokyo Tower to be some sort of magnet for all things of the Darkness and Light.

And were they wrong? After all, it was this tower they now headed towards, to either win back their two stolen comrades or fight until the death. Wufei found he couldn't dispute their claims, though he prided himself on rationality. For better or worse, Tokyo Tower stood as the place where all things came to begin or end.

* * *

Masurao gasped as his captor finally gave him a moment to breathe. He felt the blood trickling from his split lip and his eye swelling. The two men laughed as they watched him suck air into his lungs during the reprieve. He clearly saw reflected in their dull eyes the cruelty of the stupid. They treated him this way because the knew no better.

"Calm down, please." The man they referred to only as 'Boss' stepped forward. In the waning light Masurao could just barely make out the sharp, clean lines of his face, one that seemed crafted from a chisel and hammer instead of genetics. It was the face of a very young man, twenty at most, but the hair crowning the man's head was the stark silver of a man approaching his later years. He held a cane, though he didn't seem to need it. "You cannot kill them just yet. They must be alive when their friends come."

"I don't see why," one of the thugs asked, "we're just going to kill them all anyway."

"I want them to think they have a chance to win." The Boss turned to look down at Masurao, and his thin lips curled upwards. He strode forward, cane clicking on the metal floor of the platform. "Attend to the girl. I wish to have a moment alone with the boy."

Confused, the two thugs shrugged and went to Rei. Masurao caught a glimpse of them tightening her ropes before the Boss leaned down and blocked his view. The man's cold grey eyes raked down his form before returning to Masurao's face.

"You are quite different, aren't you?"

"I don't understand." Masurao grimaced with the pain in his ribs from speaking.

"Nothing like the cold-blooded killer you were before. I'm willing to say that you don't even remember that life, do you?" The grin only widened when Masurao's eyes grew large. What did this stranger mean? How could he possibly know about this so-called other life? Masurao didn't even remember, and it was supposed to have been his. "Oh yes, I know about you, Junsei Masurao. Or . . . Hiiro Yui."

"B-But . . ."

"Did you know that in your true timeline, the original Hiiro Yui was a great hero in the colonies, and not a traitor?" The cane tapped a monotonous tune against the platform as the Boss smiled down at him. "I suppose the definitions of hero and traitor depends on who is writing history. Or who is making history. You see, I made history to fit into my mold, to appease me. But I was only able to do this after ridding the existing history of the one person who might have an inkling of a chance of stopping me. Clever of me really, to use common means to be rid of that nuisance." The man stood and lifted his head to gaze out on Tokyo. The orange tint to his youthful face told Masurao that the sun was setting. "I need to be off now. I must return before the Senshi arrive. I don't want to be caught in this Time when what happens, happens. Farewell, Hiiro."

He turned and walked away, leaving Masurao blinking and coughing behind him. As he passed the two waiting thugs and Rei, he gave a dismissive wave of his hand and left a last order.

"Don't kill her yet, but take your pleasure with her if you like. I don't care." Then he was gone.

Rei immediately began struggling harder, but her bonds had been tightened. Even from the distance at which he lay, Masurao could see the utter terror in her violet eyes. The two, who might have been called Gunther and Baker once by their Boss, moved towards her, laughing. Masurao watched them close in, heard her scream, and then . . . well, then he didn't know.

* * *

Neptune heard the scream. Moments later a gunshot cracked through the air. Below them, people on the street looked back over their shoulders towards Tokyo Tower. Murmurs began to rise like steam from the street and she knew that it wouldn't be long before police would swarm the area. Moving quickly became the ultimate goal.

As usual, the rest didn't need to say it out loud to move on a shared thought. All the Senshi acted in unison, picking up their pace and pushing themselves harder. The thought flashed by her mind that a few years ago this group mindset had been completely foreign to Haruka and herself. Then the present invaded her thoughts and Neptune joined her friends on the climb up the Tower.

Anyone else wouldn't have even thought of climbing straight up the side of the Tokyo Tower. Neptune, however, and her friends were Sailor Senshi. It took only a few moments to make the climb, and at the end of those few moments a sight greeted her eyes that made her close them and turn away. She waited until she felt Uranus' strong but gentle hand resting on her shoulder before opening her eyes and taking in the scene again.

Mercury now kneeled in front of the shaking Rei, who nodded in answer to some question and tried to look composed. The way her eyes drifted and unfocused, however, revealed her torment. Around her a lake of blood shimmered in the fading sunlight. It all flowed from one body, that of a large man. He'd been shot at point blank range in the face. The other man had not been shot, but his head fell away from his body at an odd angle, his neck broken.

In the corner sat Masurao, knees held closely to his chest, eyes wide and streaming tears.

End Chapter Ten.


	12. Chapter 11

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes:** Okay, did that count as action? I think it did! Something actually happened!! Even if you didn't see it! Haha! Sorry that this chapter is so short, but everyone knows that it's been a long time since I worked on MW, and I decided that I just needed to end this chapter and get it over with, or I'd never get past it. But now that I've finally finished it, I may be able to write more. But I'm also going to keep working on Harry Potter and the Tsuki no Hime. And I've also still got school work to do; impending graduation and all. I hope everyone enjoys this long-awaited chapter!

**Anon:** Again I'm going to say that Quatre is NOT cheating on Triton… because Triton is not Trowa. However, when their minds do come back to them, we'll see what happens. ;o) **Hime:** Yes, I know the chapter was short. It costs more for my slave drivers if I write longer ones. **Sakura Yuy: **Dark chapters are goooood. And… Um… was this too long? **Girl-chama:** I don't know. Could he? Couldn't he? Did he? Didn't he? Dooby dooby doo…

**Thankies:**Fuuzaki-chan, Tensei-san, Moon Faery (from Daniel, ILirial and ALS, and Isis. And, oddly enough, my mother, who won't read this but is being too cool to tell her to her face. Thanks, Mom.

**Disclaimer:** ::sighs:: Fine. Not mine. Except the story. That's mine.

**Mended Wing – Chapter Eleven**

Quatre's heart gave off a small pang as he watched them settle the shaking Masurao on Hotaru's couch. He didn't know why such a sight should unnerve him so, or cause him discomfort, but the more agitated Masurao became, the more Quatre became uneasy watching him. Finally he had to sit down as well and look away.

"What you're experiencing is the empathic sharing of emotions."

Quatre looked up into Hotaru's violet eyes, the ones that so frightened and delighted him at the same time. For a moment he couldn't make sense of her words, until they broke through his haze.

"How do you know anything about what I'm experiencing?"

"First of all, Usagi-chan had something similar, although for different reasons. Second, I know that your original self could sense the emotions and pain of others. I see no reason why a different past should change your genetic structure. You're still what is called a newtype, aren't you?"

"No."

Hotaru looked puzzled.

"They call us HMWeapons. Short for Human Weapons. Our kind were originally created for war, even though there hasn't been a war in generations. They still call us that."

"Ah," she said, with a distant, thoughtful expression. "A different manner and purpose for creating the same type of human being. I see." Her eyes became unfocused as she paused, and he could almost see the thoughts flickering beneath the surfaces of her violet pools. "You are like me, in a way. Given wonderful and potentially healing abilities for the purpose of death."

Before Quatre could respond she walked towards Masurao, holding out a pale hand. The moment her fingers touched the bruised places on his face and arms, a green glow issued from them. As her hands moved away Quatre saw the flesh restored. She seemed to heal him without a thought, as though healing were the only facet of her power. Quatre knew, however, that underneath that smile and the gentle, healer's hand lurked a darker side that feared release, feared the day it might be called to duty. She feared herself.

_I__**am**__ like you, Hotaru-chan, more than you know._

Quickly, before any of them could notice, Quatre hid the tight, concerned expression that could betray him. He certainly didn't want these people believing that he actually cared for them.

"You'll be fine," he heard Hotaru assuring Masurao, "Now can you tell us what happened?"

Quatre watched the boy's eyes widen as he shook his head. No matter that Masurao was supposed to be the same age as Quatre, he still seemed like a boy in this quiet, subdued state. Hotaru attempted to lift Masurao's head so she could look in his eyes.

"Please, Masurao-kun. We need to know what happened."

"He killed them."

All eyes turned to Rei, who seemed to have recovered her equilibrium. At least enough to speak. Quatre wondered who she spoke of.

"What do you mean, Rei-chan?" Minako sat beside her raven-haired friend and they were as two side of one mirror, light and dark, blonde and black, blue-eyed and violet.

"I mean he," Rei pointed at Masurao, "killed those two men. They were going to rape me, but he stopped them." She shuddered, her eyes losing some of their focus as she spoke. "I don't know how he managed to get out of the ropes, but the next thing I knew he was there. He snapped one of men's neck, took his gun and shot the other one."

Quatre watched the group exchange glances. None of them seemed to believe Masurao capable of such carnage. Quatre knew how they felt. It was a ridiculous thought. One only had to look at the quivering boy to know that he couldn't possibly kill with such cold blood as Rei claimed. He wasn't even strong enough.

"But, Rei-chan . . ." Ami paused to share another glance with her gathered friends, "Masurao-kun-"

"Hiiro-kun."

Ami blinked, and the other Senshi looked as shocked as their doctor.

"Nani?"

"It wasn't Masurao-kun. It was Hiiro-kun." Rei's eyes regained their focus and hardened. "You're all right. Masurao-kun couldn't have done it. I know that's what you're thinking, and you're right. But it wasn't Masurao-kun. For a few moments Hiiro-kun was back."

Everyone turned to Masurao. He shrunk away from their eyes. Quatre felt fear mounting up from his deepest soul. This Hiiro person who Masurao once was had risen from the death of stories told by the Senshi and become a real person. The cold-blooded killer Makoto and Minako spoke of was REAL. Not a myth. Not a lie they told to make the five men do what the women wanted. And if this Hiiro was a real person, existing in some foreign Timeline, then there also lived a different Quatre Raberba Winner, one who hadn't been exiled from his family, one whose sisters maybe didn't hate him. A Quatre who knew what it felt like to be loved but also knew what it felt like to kill.

"NO!"

The word echoed in the room for a moment before Quatre realized he had shouted it. Now everyone looked at him. He stood, fists clenched and shaking. He stared back at them, throwing back their odd expressions and accusations and dislike.

"I won't become someone else! I won't be someone I don't know! I am Quatre Raberba Winner, I am ME! I didn't pilot some stupid machine! I didn't leave my family willingly! MY FATHER ISN'T DEAD!" As if he cared whether his father lived or died. Because he didn't. He didn't care. Didn't he? "I don't know this other Quatre and I don't want to be him! I want to be me!" And why? He hated his life. He wanted to end it. But why was he so determined to fight for this life if there was a better one out there?

Confused and hurt, Quatre stepped over the people sitting on the floor and left Hotaru's apartment.

* * *

Haruka watched the boy run out and Hotaru follow. She wondered what exactly was happening there and what would happen when Quatre and Triton were returned to the way they were supposed to be. Maybe Hotaru and Quatre were merely becoming very good friends. After all, they had much in common when one thought about it.

"We can worry about Masurao-kun versus Hiiro-kun later," Ami was saying, "Right now our priority is Usagi-chan."

"Usagi-chan . . ." Setsuna murmured. Her maroon eyes settled on the carpet as her lips kept moving in a silent litany. Was she praying? Was she holding an imaginary conversation with their departed princess? Haruka almost wished she knew, then decided against it. If one knew what insanity felt like, would one then be insane?

Ami proceeded to explain to Rei and the shaken Masurao about the legend of the Eye of Hecate. Rei immediately agreed. She didn't care about the lack of a fifth person.

"Why can't we just substitute one of the others," she asked, looking towards Haruka and Michiru, "They're still Senshi, aren't they? Whatever guardian or tests are watching over can't tell the difference between one Senshi and another, can they?"

Ami blinked.

"I hadn't thought of that. You know, that might just be the solution." Blue-black eyes turned to the pair. "Would one of you be willing to face a challenge?"

"Of course," Haruka said at the same moment Michiru nodded. Perfectly in sync, as usual. Haruka continued, "Usagi-chan is our princess as well. Our vow may have been to protect the solar system, but we care just as much about her as you do."

"Besides, protecting Usagi-chan means protecting the solar system." Michiru smiled. "We realize this now."

Makoto piped up from her corner, where she'd been brooding about something or other. "Should we take Hotaru-chan, just in case?"

"No, I think it's safe to say that Haruka or Michiru can take care of whatever challenge there is." Minako shook her head. "If we need Hotaru-chan we can contact her and she has the power to take herself to the Moon."

"T-The Moon?" Father Duo stuttered as he looked on them. "You're going to the Moon?" When they all nodded, he began to shake and pulled his Bible to his chest like he was wont to do when nervous. Or angry. Or scared. "B-But what will happen to us? Where will we stay? How long will you be gone?"

Haruka looked at Ami, who pressed a hand to her mouth at this unforeseen but inevitable complication. Ami turned to Minako, who looked just as surprised, and Makoto began to glower even more darkly. Rei looked from Masurao to Duo to Triton, then sighed.

"We'll have to take them with us," she finally said. She was greeted with incredulous glares from all parties.

"WHAT?!?" Makoto shook her head, obviously ready to begin a spiel.

"We can't-" Minako was interrupted by Haruka.

"That's insane, if they don't get us all killed they'll get themselves killed!"

Mamoru, who'd been completely silent until this point, finally spoke.

"It's the only thing to do."

They looked at their prince. Ami finally sighed and nodded.

"I agree. We simply can't leave them here. Duo-kun is right, we don't know how long this will take or how long we'll be gone. And if we get killed, they'll have no one to help them. Maybe if we take them along they can actually help."

"Help?" Makoto sniffed. "How?"

"I don't know, Makoto-chan, but it's a possibility. And we really have no other choice if you stop to really think about it."

So it was decided. The next day would see them all on the Moon searching for an artifact that could possibly have the power to resurrect their dead princess. And along for the ride would be five useless former Gundam Pilots.

End Chapter Eleven.


	13. Chapter 12

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes: **Weyll, peeps, I think that now that I'm out of college (for now) I've kinda run out of steam for just about anything and everything. All I want to do is laze around and do… well, nothing. But don't worry, I won't let it last for long. As long as I don't have a job, I'll force myself to write in my spare time. And I'll force myself to write in my spare time even after I get a job. Enjoy!

**Thankies:**Oh, just everyone. I'm too tired right now to name names, but you all know who you are.

**Disclaimers:** Sailormoon does not belong to me. Gundam Wing does not belong to me either.

**Other:** Who needs war? Who needs death and destruction on a massive scale when our own petty hatreds are choking us anyway? I am anti-war and PROUD OF IT.

**Mended Wing**

Chapter Twelve

The Moon remained as frigid and uninviting as their last sojourn there. Only that time, Usagi had been with them. She made it seem lighter, brighter, like it could be salvaged. Without her there were only the stark pillars of a desecrated and forgotten holy city. Without her there could be no hope of healing. For the Moon. For them all.

Mamoru felt strange standing on the white Moon plain. He was dressed like Prince Endymion, but still felt like Chiba Mamoru. He knew that once his feet-- in a different body--, had traversed here, but he only remembered the last days. How many times had he touched this ground, that pillar, or that window before the day he'd died? How many times had Serenity brought him to the palace to meet with the Queen, to speak with the Inner Planet Court, or simply to be together? He couldn't remember. As he watched the other Senshi he could see the light of remembrance dawn on their faces, but felt none of it himself. Perhaps all of his old memories were to be found on Earth. Perhaps it was that he had never been to the Moon before that fateful time. He didn't know. He couldn't remember.

"Did anything in that old myth tell you where to find the Eye of Hecate?" he asked Mercury. She looked at him with blue-black eyes filled with tears from some memory returned. She stared at him blankly for a moment before seeming to realize what he'd said. Her eyes blinked, chasing away the last of those tears and she grabbed her computer.

"No, nothing. But I do have a map of the way the Moon looked before its destruction. We can use that and our memories to confirm which parts were used and which parts were abandoned." Her fingers slid over the keys with her usual practiced ease. "Then we can search each of the abandoned areas until we find the right one."

"How will we know the right one?" Venus slipped up behind Ami and looked over her shoulder. The blonde's face soon scrunched into a confused mask.

"Trust me, Venus," Mercury said shortly, "when we find it, we'll know."

Soon she had a map of the old Moon Kingdom showing on her computer screen. The Senshi all huddled around the small thing in order to see and contribute their own memories. Mamoru watched Venus point to a certain place on the map and insist that it had never been used, only to have Mercury confirm that it had been the Queen's bedchambers. From then on Venus kept quiet, but stayed in the midst of the action. Mamoru kept away, like the former Gundam pilots.

"Why do you not help them?"

Mamoru looked to his left to see Wufei standing there, appraising black eyes locked on the prince. He cleared his throat and moved his gaze away from the Chinese man.

"I wouldn't be of any help to them. I don't remember."

"Don't remember what?" It was Quatre, who'd sneaked up on Mamoru's right side. Mamoru turned to see all of the pilots circling around him, even shy Duo. All gaze nervous glances to the girls and looked to him to give some comfort in the middle of the confusion.

"This place. The Moon Kingdom. I don't remember it as well as they do. I didn't live here." He wrapped his cape around him. "All I remember is trying to warn the Queen and princess, and then the last battle and dying." He shrugged and the other men didn't push him. He wondered if the strangeness he'd been feeling crept through his voice. It was strange to be here, but more than that it was strange to be here, with the Senshi, without Usagi. It was strange to think of her lying back on Earth, locked in a Time bubble, dead.

Bright red blossomed in slow motion before his mind's eyes, as it had over and over again since he first saw it happen. Gods, could she really be . . . but he'd asked himself that before. So many times. And every time the answer was the same. Yes, Usagi was dead. Mamoru closed his eyes, but the red only became brighter, only taunted him more.

"Was she an angel?"

The words made Mamoru open his eyes, blink, and look at the priest. An angel? But violet eyes gazed back at him with pure questioning and no malice. Mamoru sighed and looked up into the vast expanse of space reaching all around their cold world and smiled a little.

"I guess she was. An angel on Earth." A tear trekked from his eye down his cheek. For a moment he wanted to reach up and wipe it away, but finally he just didn't want to; perhaps somewhere Usagi could see this one tear shed for her and know it was the only one he could allow himself. "If you ask anyone who ever met her, they'll all tell you the same thing."

"What?" Duo asked when Mamoru paused.

"She was the kindest, gentlest, most loving person you could ever meet."

* * *

Duo watched Mamoru. The man truly grieved. The pain in those eyes or evident in every gesture Mamoru made could not be false. His wife had been killed and he grieved like no man Duo had ever seen. But then, where he came from, most men died before their wives and it was the wives who grieved for the loss of the comforting, protective presence of their husbands. The wives grieved for the stability the husbands gave, and the link to God. For women were the first sinners and needed men to guide them.

Didn't they?

Duo wondered at the lost look in Mamoru's gaze. Among all the stars in the Heavens, without his wife, Mamoru felt lost. The woman he grieved for had to be untouched for him to feel incomplete without her.

Father Duo felt his eyes watering. He blinked and turned to watch the women working together to find this artifact they hoped would return Mamoru's wife, their friend. But weren't women lazy, and vain, and concerned only with themselves?

Duo looked at his bible and wondered, as he never had before, how much inside had been interpreted correctly.

* * *

Quatre crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. He often found that this stance made him look more formidable and less approachable, which was exactly how he wanted to look. Something inside of him shuddered to see all of the effort these people were putting into saving one girl, and to see how much Mamoru missed her. No one back home would work this hard to save him if he were already dead. No one cared enough. No one would miss him. What kind of person could inspire such caring and loyalty out of so many?

Better question, what kind of person was he that he didn't?

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see the tall, green-eyed boy standing at his side. Triton, that was his name. Quatre still found himself uneasy around Triton, for reasons he could name and some he couldn't. The reason he could name had to do with the undeniable way that Triton looked at him: filled with attraction and desire.

The reason he couldn't, or perhaps didn't want to name, had to do with the way he felt when Triton looked at him that way.

"Okay," Mercury said, and Quatre saw her look up from her computer, grinning, "I think we've got it narrowed down to three places."

* * *

Triton held back, as did the other men who were in his situation, as the women who called themselves Senshi entered the ruins of what once had been a magnificent building. He could see the past beauty in the intricate designs that curled over the surface of the white walls lying over the ground. He wasn't an architect, but he recognized beauty when he saw it.

His eyes drifted again to Quatre.

Triton had never been in love before, but that was why he could so easily identify this feeling. He'd never felt it, or anything like it, before laying eyes on the petite blonde boy who seemed to hate everyone around him. Triton's arms twitched every time he came close to Quatre, trying to lift and wrap around that small frame. To comfort, to heal. He wanted to heal Quatre. He wanted to love the boy and be loved by him. Triton wanted to be everything for Quatre, though Quatre didn't want anything from him. Yet he did. Triton felt the longing, the calling from within the blonde's form. Triton was not an HMWeapon, he never had been, so he should not be able to sense the desires of this other boy. Yet he could. He could think of only one explanation.

They had to be soulmates.

"This isn't it." Mercury shook her head as she and Mars, the designated Senshi for that search, emerged. "We weren't challenged, and we searched the entire length of what was left. Looks like it was only an old storage facility."

"Next," said Mars, less enthusiastically than Triton would have expected. Then again, he realized, the closer they came to finding the Eye, the closer they came to the challenges. None of them knew what to expect from those, or whether they would survive them.

* * *

Masurao found it difficult to focus on the happenings around him, despite their extraordinary nature. He knew the manner in which they had come to the Moon should have fascinated him, or at least frightened him, and the state of the Moon itself should be a shock. But knowing what he knew, that a killer resided somewhere not so deeply inside of him, kept him from experiencing the wonder fully.

He kept wondering who those men had been.

Who were their mothers? Did they have childhood nicknames? Had they been jocks or nerds in high school? Brains or bullies? Did they have wives who would miss them, or children? The fact that they had been bent on killing him eventually had nothing to do with Masurao's line of thought. They may have been killers, but they had also been men. Living. Alive.

Now they were dead.

His eyes followed Wufei and the Senshi as they entered another building, and he noticed that this one was actually intact, but that was all he noticed. Did Rel miss him? Hardly. She barely knew him. She couldn't possibly miss him. And if she did, how would she feel about his new status as a murderer? She may be a rebel, but she still came from a peace-loving family. She would despise him.

"Missing someone?"

Masurao looked up to see the tall man standing beside him, the one who wasted no time in letting everyone around him know he was interested in dating only other tall, dark and handsome men and was single enough to do so.

"Uh, yeah," Masurao admitted. He shrugged. "Someone.

"Me too." Triton looked towards Mamoru, who still had his eyes turned up to the stars, and then to Quatre, whose eyes were bent to the ground. Masurao followed Triton's gaze as he watched Father Duo, and then the emerging Senshi and Wufei. "I think we're all missing someone. I just don't know exactly who I'm missing yet."

* * *

Wufei growled inwardly as the second search yielded no more than the first. He'd wanted to help them search this place, convinced they must have missed something in the first. But these women were constantly proving themselves to him, much as Meiran had done after their marriage. He had searched this building as thoroughly as they and found no more. It seemed this place had once been a bank, long ago before the Silver Millennium had rid themselves of the need for currency. Mercury had filled him in on that piece of information.

He looked up to the others and shook his head. He saw nervousness blossom in all their eyes. Everyone knew that if this had not been the place, there was only one place left. If it did not pan out, they would have to start over again or give up. And something told him it would take much more than this failure to make the women give up.

Wufei sighed and steeled himself internally for what was to come. He was here for a reason, his bones spoke that fact to him. He was not merely here to follow the Senshi around and watch them. No, he would be acting, not waiting.

"All that's left is the cave," Mercury announced. "It's just outside the limits of the royal city."

Wufei nodded.

"Then let us go."

* * *

Mamoru looked at the white stone doors. They confused him. Doors on a cave?

The group stood in from of one of the few mountains on the Moon. More precisely, they stood inside one of the craters, at the rim, in front of what might be considered a mountain, but really was the wall of the crater reaching up to become the level ground of the rest of the small planet. And in front of them, leading into a cave in the side of the crater, were a pair of white stone doors.

The doors were carved. Mamoru saw scenes of a woman leading an army. The woman wore the characteristic twin buns of the Lunar Royal House. To further prove her identity, she had on her forehead a crescent moon depicted with rays of lighting flowing from it. She rode a gracefully stylized war steed and held aloft a scepter with a crescent moon on the top. Within the cradle of that moon there came another source of light rays that could only be the Silver Crystal. Venus voiced aloud Mamoru's thought.

"Queen Hecate."

"I told you we'd know when we found it." Mercury smiled and looked through her visor at the doorway.

"Now what?" Uranus stepped forward and inspected the carvings. Mamoru did the same, reading the script that graced the top of the doorway. His eyes settled on the handles, and his throat constricted.

"I'm not sure," Mercury replied, fingers practically glued to her computer keys. "I'll have to translate the writing in order to find out how to proceed without getting anyone killed."

Mamoru blinked.

"What are you talking about?" He stepped forward, eyes going over the writing again to make sure he wasn't mistaken. No, the meaning was as clear as it had been the first time he read them. "If I can read that, surely you can."

All of the Senshi stared at him. Uranus and Neptune shared a glance. Venus blinked blankly at him, and Mars and Jupiter stared open-mouthed. Mamoru felt uncomfortable and fidgeted. Finally, Mercury stepped towards him and spoke.

"We can't read it. It's ancient Lunarian, long before our time. Only the Lunarian heirs were taught to read it." She stopped, and Mamoru could tell by the expressions on their faces that they all had figured out what must have happened. Serenity, young and full of dreams and rebellion, must have taught him to read the language in a defiant gesture. He remembered snippets of times on Earth, sitting under a tree, sounding out odd syllables at Serenity's instruction. She seemed to think it important for some reason other than rebellion, however.

"Well?" Uranus put her hands on her hips, looking oddly very much like Minako, and lifted an eyebrow. "Since you can read it, what does it say?"

Mamoru sighed, and read over the words one more time. They remained the same eight words as before.

"It says 'Only true love's blood may part the way.'"

Again the stares. He saw that they knew as well as he what the words meant, and none of them liked it any more than he did. He saw Mercury's lips parting and knew she was about to say they should retreat until they could find a better way, a less dangerous way. But he shook his head.

"No, that's the payment required. We all knew there would be challenges. We just didn't expect this one." He turned his eyes to them all, letting them take what they needed from his gaze alone. The only one he gave words to was Father Duo. Mamoru laid his hand on the priest's shoulder. "When she returns, and everything is back to normal, she's going to need you. If you remember nothing else, remember this: Take care of her."

Before the small man could protest or wonder aloud, Mamoru turned from him and walked up to the two forbidding doors. He saw the golden handles, the only splash of color against the white. Nearing closer, he saw that the doors were actually set a few inches into the wall of the crater, leaving room for a vertical line of holes. Well, he'd expected something of the sort. Painful, but necessary.

Mamoru took a deep breath as he approached, kept his eyes on the door as his hands reached for the handles, and never looked to his side again.

He heard the _swoosh!_ of metal against rock, but never felt the glinting spikes that embedded themselves in his body.

End Chapter Twelve.


	14. Chapter 13

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Authors Notes: **I think everyone here should remind Fuu-chan of the dangers of killing off fanfiction authors before their story is done. ::rubs the back of her head, which was beaten into the ground many times by Fuu-chan:: Owie… my head still hurts. Seriously people, there's a reason behind what happened at the end of the last chapter. Maybe not a very good one… ::blinks as she KNOWS they're all glaring at her murderously:: Um… okay, it was a REALLY good reason. But you're just going to have to keep reading and see! Since getting chapter twelve out of the way, I think I've got my steam on this story back (Authors Notes update: Okies, so I lied!). Whee!! I just hope I don't get killed before it's over…

**Thankies:** I'm not sure I should thank you this time, Fuu-chan. ::sniffles:: You tried to kill me::grins:: Oh, okies, fine! THANKIES! Tensei-chan! Now if you'd only actually READ this story. Pleiades-sama!!! Thankies for all your HP #5 info! Whee!! There are some other people, but my brain has gone on vacation. Oh, Moon Faery-chan. Though I don't think she's reading this fic either.

**Disclaimers:** ::insert proper denials here::

**Mended Wing – Chapter Thirteen**

Venus didn't realize she was on her knees until she saw her hands in front of her face, fingers splayed over the calm white surface of the Moon. Calm surface, so calm, while inside she was a storm, a torrent. She wanted to vomit. She wanted to scream. She felt her insides shaking and saw the shaking evident on the outside; her arms trembled.

"Venus!" Someone was yelling her name. "Venus, snap out of it!"

The blonde blinked and looked up into the tight expression of Sailormercury. The other woman had her hands on Venus' shoulders and was trying to pull her to her feet.

"We don't have time for this. We have to be ready for the challenges." Even as she spoke, Mercury's voice cracked. "We can mourn later."

"No." Venus tried to shake her friend off but didn't have the strength. "What's the point now? What's the point? Even if we get the Eye and revive Usagi-chan, Mamoru-san is gone. Crystal Tokyo will never exist no matter what we do!" Despair wrapped around her heart and squeezed mercilessly.

"Maybe we can revive them both with the Eye. Maybe we can't, but we have to try. We have to, or we aren't Senshi. If we don't try we aren't Senshi worthy to serve the Tsuki no Hime and we might as well die ourselves."

The words seeped into the choking despair and loosened it, allowing Venus to breathe again. She nodded and stood, facing the doorway and Mamoru's corpse again.

From every spike embedded in his skin flowed a small river of their prince's blood. The redness collected in a ditch at the base of the closed doors until it was full. Then the ditch drained, the spikes retracted, and Mamoru fell to the ground. Venus didn't watch him hit the ground. She couldn't. Instead she watched as the lines of the carved images in the doors filled with bright, glowing red. The pictures burned with redness and scorched themselves into a permanent place in her mind. Then the red flashed and vanished and Venus heard a distinct click from the doors. They swung slowly wide open, large enough for the entire group to walk through.

Inside was dark. The only light came from the open doors and as soon as all of them were inside the doors closed, leaving them completely without sight. There was only time for Venus to gasp before a line of torches on either side of the room spontaneously lit up. They were in a medium-sized elongated chamber; Venus noticed four indentations at chest-height in the wall at her left. At the end of the chamber, to the right of another set of double doors, stood a life-sized statue of a woman with one hand raised, palm outward. Though her eyes were blank and white, the crescent moon at her forehead and the twin buns on her head revealed her to be Queen Hecate.

"**Halt**," said a mechanized female voice. "**Whoever seeks to pass must know this: only when the past entwines the future will the way be opened. Beyond this point are the final four challenges. With open hearts these challenges must be faced, and with faith. Anything less will end in death. Good journey.**"

Silence.

"Good journey, my ass." Everyone turned to glare at Quatre. He shrugged. "Not like she was giving us any real options. 'When the past entwines the future.' What the hell's that supposed to mean, anyway?"

"I think it obviously deals with us," said Mercury, tapping away on her computer. "After all, for the Senshi this is the present, but for the pilots it's the past and you're from our future."

Uranus summed it up for the rest of them when she very eloquently said, "Huh?"

Mercury sighed.

"Okay, the past part refers to us, because we are the past as far as the pilots are concerned. Following me so far?" Encouraged by the nods all around, Mercury continued. "However, as far as WE are concerned, they are the future, and so they are what the future part refers to. Got it?"

"Vaguely."

"Vaguely is better than not at all," Mercury told Uranus. She was about to say something else when Wufei spoke up.

"What is this about 'entwining'? This does not mean that we must . . . erm . . ." The Chinese man's face flushed brightly as he left his sentence dangling in the air for the rest of them to interpret. It was Father Duo who meeped and flushed next. That started a chain reaction down the line of former pilots and Senshi until finally Mercury picked up on what Wufei meant and scowled even through her blush.

"NO! That's NOT what it means!"

"Then what does it mean?"

Mercury looked Venus straight in the eyes.

"I have no idea."

The group instantly began shooting ideas. Unfortunately, they all spoke at the same time, and the buzz of uncontrolled conversation made Venus' head hurt. She took a step away from the others, surprised and a bit nauseated at how calmly they could argue amongst themselves so soon after seeing the gruesome death of their friend and prince. Venus, for her part, still felt like vomiting.

The insistent humming of the others hovered over her head as she walked further away. Venus sighed, bowed her head, and placed her right hand on the wall to support her weight.

Immediately, she felt the sap of strength. Venus looked up and saw that her hand had landed into one of the indentations on the wall. Her eyes traveled upwards, seeing a small channel carved into the wall moving to the ceiling, then across. The channel then moved down the opposite wall to an identical indentation to the one Venus' hand rested in.

"Uh . . . guys . . ."

No one heard, and the buzz of desperate conversation continued.

"Guys . . ." Her hand began to glow with golden light, a light that slowly trekked up the length of the carved channel. "HEY IDIOTS!"

Several shocked faces turned to her. Venus pointed to her glowing hand.

"You think this might mean something?"

Eyes of all shapes and colors went wide upon viewing the golden light, and Mercury stepped forward with her computer. The chamber had gone blissfully silent on Venus' question and she hoped it would remain so. It did, at least as long as it took for Mercury to scan the phenomenon; Venus felt weaker with each passing second.

"Well," her smarter counterpart finally said, "this is interesting."

"'Interesting' isn't exactly what I want to hear, Mercury." Venus tried to pull away from the wall, but her hand wouldn't budge. "Especially when I can't get away from whatever it is!"

"It looks like your powers are being drained from you."

Venus felt as blank as all of the others looked.

"M-My powers?"

"Yes. The planetary powers gifted to you as the princess and Senshi of the planet Venus. Your Crescent Beam, your Love and Beauty Shock, your accelerated healing as well as your enhanced speed and strength."

"That must be connected to the riddle," Triton said quietly from the back of the group. "Otherwise it wouldn't be happening."

"You're right. From what I've been able to learn about Queen Hecate, she planned everything to a precise degree and never left anything to chance." Mercury sighed and began scanning the rest of the chamber. "This would be part of her plan, and I think the rest of it is over there." She pointed to one of the identical indentations on the opposite wall. "With the route of the channel taken into account, that's where you're powers are going."

"So someone should be on the other side to receive those powers." Triton looked at his fellow former pilots with wavering green eyes. "One of us."

* * *

Of course it made perfect sense. If the past and future were supposed to entwine, what better way than taking the powers from those representing the past and place them into those representing the future? But there were only eight indentations; four past, four for the future. There were five of them from the future, if these girls could be believed. After everything he'd seen, Father Duo was beginning to believe them.

He thought of the fate of Mamoru, and the words the man had spoken before going into what he knew would be his death.

_"When she returns, and everything is back to normal, she's going to need you. If you remember nothing else, remember this: Take care of her."_

Father Duo didn't understand those words. Why would she need him? Why should he be the one to take care of a woman he had never met?

_"She was the kindest, gentlest, most loving person you could ever meet."_

"Who should the four be?" Sailormars' voice broke through his musings, and Father Duo found himself following the conversation. "I mean, the seven. Venus managed to blunder herself into this mess—"

"Hey!"

"Which of the rest of us should give up our powers, and to which four?"

The tall woman known in this form as Sailoruranus stepped forward and opened her mouth to speak, but Sailorjupiter stopped her.

"It should be us, the remaining three Inner Court. After all, we are the ones who swore our lives and duties to Princess Serenity." Her mouth thinned and she nodded to herself. "It should be us. I volunteer."

Sailorjupiter moved to the indentation beside Venus and placed her hand in it. In an instant a green light surrounded her fingers and began to slowly move up the channel, as Venus' golden light had. Father Duo felt his eyes burn with tears at this gesture, not knowing why it moved him so. The burning grew when Mars and Mercury moved, without words, to the remaining two places and did the same, red and blue light moving from their hands up the wall.

The four of them turned their solemn eyes to the five men.

"You decide amongst yourselves who will receive our powers," Mercury told them. "But hurry; I'm not sure what will happen to us if no one is on the other end." Then she looked toward Sailoruranus and Sailorneptune. "Since the participants have been chosen, you two take the fifth back with you to Earth. There is no reason for the three of you to be here when there is nothing you can do. If this succeeds then we'll be able to get back on our own."

Father Duo felt panic rising in the back of his throat, but something even stronger from deep within a part of him he hadn't known. The other four men looked at the women and then amongst themselves in a silent panic; Duo recognized that gleam in their eyes at the same uneasiness knotting his stomach. Then he looked at Venus, whose blue eyes were locked on him and shone. She smiled to him even as her arm began to tremble. The light from her had traveled halfway up the wall. When she turned away, Father Duo could see her sweating with the effort to just stay standing, and he knew what he had to do.

Driven by the fire burning in that place he couldn't name, Father Duo turned and walked to the opposite wall, placing his hand in the indentation across from Sailorvenus'.

With sudden, dizzying speed, her golden light burst through the channel, across the ceiling, and down into Duo's hand. It extended to cover his arm, bringing warmth with it and a strength Duo hadn't known it was possible to feel. When it was over, he pulled his hand away and looked back towards his benefactor.

Minako had fallen to her knees, panting. Her Sailor fuku was gone, replaced by her civilian clothing.

"I f-feel strange," she stuttered, "weak."

"You're used to feeling strong," Mercury responded. "Now you're just an ordinary girl, Aino Minako, and you're not used to having ordinary strength."

Minako nodded but did not try to speak again. Duo looked at his fellows.

"It's alright, I'm not hurt. It doesn't hurt at all. I . . . I feel strong."

While he marveled at his own confidence, three of the four stepped forward and took places at the wall. Wufei placed himself to receive the power of Jupiter.

"I would be honored to bear the power of such a strong woman," he said as he rested his hand into the indentation. As the green light settled into him, Masurao stood to take on the red light from Mars. He said nothing, but Father Duo suspected he felt close to her, having shared the kidnapping experience with her. To the other side of Masurao, Triton stepped silently forward and caught the blue light of the Mercury powers.

Quatre stood back, arms crossed, eyes narrowed and face taught. There seemed to be a bubble around him made only stronger by what was happening. The more those around him sacrificed and gave, the more the blonde retreated into his shell of self-hatred and rage. Father Duo wanted very badly to heal this young man, but knew he couldn't. Only one thing could. The return of things to how they were, to how they must be again.

In a moment the four Inner Senshi were sagging in various stages of exhaustion on the ground, all looking pale and weak. The four men, on the other hand, stood tall and with something akin to pride. They all knew they had volunteered for something dangerous. If Wufei, Triton, and Masurao felt the same way Duo felt, however, he knew they didn't care.

"Come on, Quatre-kun." Sailoruranus grabbed the boy, who yelled indignantly at the invasion, and steered him towards the door. Halfway there, she and Sailorneptune turned. "We'll also take the Prince home." Her voice wavered but did not actually crack.

"Good." Ami said, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the wall. "Just don't . . . don't let Hotaru-chan see him without some warning."

"I won't."

Then the three of them left. The doors opened to allow them passage, then closed again once they were through. Only the eight were left, and four of them would have to move one while four of them would wait. Father Duo looked to Ami.

"What will happen if one of us is killed?" The prospect frightened him, but to his surprise, not as badly as it once had. "Will your power be returned, or will you be helpless?"

The woman bit her bottom lip, gave her friends a glance, then shook her head.

"I'm not sure, Duo-kun. I-I really don't know."

He nodded, content with that answer since it was the only one she could offer.

"Good luck," Minako said, smiling at them all.

"Be safe," said Rei. She nodded to Masurao, something unspoken passing between the two.

"Get through these challenges. We're counting on you, and so is Usagi-chan." Makoto looked as though she'd never forgive them if they failed. Duo imagined she wouldn't.

"Oh, NO pressure there, Makoto-chan!" Minako threw her arms in the air weakly, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. Makoto scowled. "Go on," the blonde said gently, "Mako-chan may not be very subtle, but she's right. We're all counting on you."

"We'll do our best," Masurao promised quietly, "but that's no guarantee that our best will be good enough."

"We will not fail." Wufei glowered in Masurao's direction. "I give my word as an honorable man."

Duo merely smiled and nodded. He didn't know what else to do or say, so he left it at that. He'd already surprised himself enough for one say. He didn't want to know what might come out of his mouth at that moment. Without that last word to give, he turned away from them and towards the statue of Queen Hecate and the door she guarded. His three companions turned with him.

They walked forward, through the doors when they opened, and into the dangerously unknown.

End Chapter Thirteen.


	15. Chapter 14

**Here is the reposting of Mended Wing. Enjoy.**

**Author's Notes: **AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA::the purple tap dancing penguins cower as Sailorcelestial cackles like a mad woman:: AHAHA!! It's done, it's finished, hahahahaahahahaha!! It's short, very short, but at least it's FINISHED! I told you, I promised, didn't I?? Ahem. Enjoy this very short chapter of Mended Wing.

**Thankies:** I don't have time for thankies but here I go anyway! IronRaven! Pleiades-sama! Tensei-chan! Fuuzaki-chan! Satan's Mistress! Unnamed person with good manga whom you people will learn about soon enough! Yeah!

**Disclaimers:** I'm late for work. Insert standard disclaimers here. Don't sue me.

**Mended Wing Chapter Fourteen**

Hotaru watched the world slowly come back into focus. Above her floated an angelic face, childlike, surrounded by pale blonde hair. Blue eyes, moist with concern, stared into her own and somewhere in the haze she heard a familiar voice.

"Hotaru-chan, wake up." A gentle slapping at her cheeks caught her attention. Hotaru opened her eyes fully and the blurred face turned into Quatre. "Hotaru-chan, are you okay?"

Why was she lying on the floor? Only Quatre and Uranus and Neptune had returned from the Moon, she remembered that much. The three had, for some reason, chosen not to return directly to the apartment, instead transporting to the park. Hotaru shook her head, trying to remember the reason. She saw their worried faces gazing at her, so much like their expressions when they walked through the door, right before they had told her—

"Oh gods!"

Endymion. Mamoru. Dead. Their prince, lost to Death alongside their princess. Oh gods, what were they going to do? Would it even matter if they brought Usagi back now? Maybe they should leave her dead; at least that way Serenity and Endymion would be together.

"Hotaru-chan!" Haruka pushed Quatre aside. Hotaru felt the sharp sting of Haruka's slap.

"Haruka-papa . . ."

"The last thing we need is Sailorsaturn in a catatonic state." The woman stared down her charge, brutally, without regard for Hotaru's feelings. "Sailorpluto is already useless. Without Sailormoon, you are the most powerful of us left. If the others don't succeed, we may need you. We have no idea what's going on or what kind of enemy we're facing."

"Leave her alone," Quatre growled, returning Haruka's shove. "Have a little compassion, geez."

Haruka laughed.

"Oh, that's funny coming from _you_, Oh Compassionate One."

"Is the Gate open?" Setsuna stood in the kitchen doorway, hands held closely to her chest like a frightened child. Her maroon eyes were wide as Michiru approached her. "Is the Gate open? I don't wanna go back in the Gate! I don't wanna go back, don't make me go back, please don't make me!"

Michiru took the Guardian in her arms, shushing her and looking at Haruka with wide, helpless eyes. None of them knew what to do, either with Setsuna or with the time they had to wait.

* * *

Quatre sat in a restaurant next to the place called Crown Arcade and grumbled into a chocolate milkshake. Hotaru had shown him the place yesterday, the day after his return from the Moon, saying the Senshi used to go there all the time when they were down, or when they simply wanted to meet. From outside, the girl had gazed on the building with eyes filled with all sorts of emotion, ranging from wistfulness to sorrow and from nostalgia to hope. Hotaru wanted the Senshi to meet here again. All of the Senshi.

Quatre didn't know what to think about the whole situation, so he'd come here to try and find a small portion of the happiness Hotaru seemed to glean from this place, and some of the clarity she wore like a robe. Hotaru knew. Even though she had power beyond normal imagining, even though she could destroy this planet with a thought, if the others were to be believed, Hotaru knew her place in life and she knew what she wanted. She wanted to be a photographer. She wanted to be a writer. She wanted to be normal.

Quatre didn't know what he wanted.

Before coming to this place, or this time, he'd wanted nothing more than to die. His life had been meaningless. His family hated him for some reason none of them would say. They only left him alone on an empty colony as though he were some sort of leper they didn't dare touch, either physically or emotionally.

Then time turned backward and he ended up in this strange place with strange people claiming him to be the nasty by-product of someone's meddling with time. He was as he was because some chick in the past named Usagi died when she wasn't supposed to, and her friends wanted to bring her back to life and return everything to normal.

In the face of this, of the possibility of losing who he was, of losing the Quatre Raberba Winner who wanted death above all . . . Quatre found he wanted to live. He desperately wanted to remain the person he was. Perhaps it wasn't really a desire to live, but merely the desire to die as the person he knew. He didn't know that other Quatre, and somehow losing himself like that seemed worse than death. At least with death there would be oblivion. If the Senshi managed to bring back Usagi with this Eye of Hecate thing, assuming the other guys would be able to get it, Quatre wouldn't die, he'd only cease to exist as—

_Oh, shut up. You've circled this one thought enough, don't you think?_

He shoved the now empty glass across the table and inclined his head forward, lacing fingers through his pale blonde bangs, closing his eyes. In the darkness there flashed a vision of the emerald-eyed boy who smiled so sweetly when he smiled. Quatre sighed, the breath coming out shakily, and his cheeks became wet as his eyes rained on them. Why did that face haunt him? Even at night, when his mind became preoccupied with thoughts of Hotaru a room away, that face came back. Somehow they, the face and Hotaru, became one in his mind, though there were obvious differences. By Allah, he must be really fucked up.

Bells jingled in the background as the restaurant door opened. Quatre's fingers released his hair and he allows his arms to fold and his head to slip downward, forehead resting on his arms. Through the darkness, he felt his breath curling around his face and causing condensation to accumulate on the tabletop. He sat like that, not thinking, not wanting to think, until a gentle hand rested on his shoulder. Quatre started and lifted his head.

"Hey." Hotaru smiled gently down at him. "I had to search all over for you, but after a while I figured you didn't know too many places, so narrowed my search to the locations I showed you, as Ami-san would say." She kept smiling, but the wavering shine in her eyes betrayed her worry for the friend she spoke of.

"Sorry," he said, "I needed time to think."

Hotaru just nodded, straightening. She turned to look over her shoulder at the door, then back to him, eyebrows lifting questioningly. Quatre sighed and nodded, taking up his check. At least he had some money. Hotaru had thought to give him some during their excursion the previous day; he hadn't used any then. He paid the check at the front door and the two of them ventured out into the city. Hotaru surprised him when she slipped her arm around his. She didn't even look at him as she did it, as though such an action was as natural as walking. Come to think of it, it felt nice to have a girl walking with him of her own volition. Quatre said nothing.

"Setsuna-san is getting worse."

The blonde ventured a glance at his companion. She watched the sidewalk as they proceeded, one hand lifted to her lips, fingernail pressed against the bottom lip, teeth poised to bite. Without thinking, Quatre reached forward and tugged her hand away from her mouth. She blinked, turning her face up to his.

"You shouldn't bite your nails. It's a bad habit."

She smiled.

"Haruka-papa keeps telling me that. I can't help it, though. It's already a nervous habit."

"Oh, that makes me feel really confident about the fate of the world. One of its protectors bites her nails when she's nervous." He expected to be yelled at. When she said nothing, for a horrible moment Quatre thought he'd hurt her feelings and she might cry instead. What would he do if she cried?!? Then, incredibly, she laughed.

"Sorry, Quatre-kun. I'll try to curb my nervousness from now on." Her fingers tightened on his sleeve a bit.

"You do that," Quatre murmured, thinking back to the bridge and the kiss they shared there. The face of the green-eyed boy flashed behind his eyes, but was quickly drowned by the laughing violet eyes of the girl walking beside him. As they neared the bridge again, for crossing it would lead to Hotaru's apartment, Quatre stopped. Hotaru had no choice but to stop as well, and her mouth quirked with curiosity.

"Quatre-kun, why—"

He stopped her by covering her lips with his. The last kiss had been gentle, and this one started that way, but soon his mouth pressed to hers with something else, something closer to urgency. The haze in his mind parted enough to let him realize Hotaru had not moved since he began the embrace, but it took him several seconds to muddled through enough thoughts and feelings to decide what that might mean. He pulled back and forced his voice to work.

"Hotaru-chan?" The name came out low, without any strength, trembling with waiting for her reply. She blinked at him, letting nothing show in her deep violet gaze. He came close to shaking her, or losing his control in another manner; only incredible willpower on his part kept Hotaru from some sort of assault.

"Come on," she said finally, taking his hand in her smaller one, "let's go home."

He followed her.

Later, once all was done beyond undoing, and he lie in Hotaru's bed with her beside him, Quatre stared up at the ceiling and wondered what the green-eyed boy would think of him. Then he wondered why he cared.

After he managed to throw off those questions and fall asleep, Quatre missed the rustle of the sheets next to him and the soft voice murmuring.

"Gomen nasai, Trowa-kun. He needs someone, and you aren't here."

* * *

The days passed. Hotaru found herself lying awake more often than not, mirroring the blank stare of Quatre next to her. Only she wondered about her friends. Nearly a week since the Inner Senshi and the four former pilots had been left on the Moon, and no word or any sort of sign. How long did the challenges take to complete? Did this mean none of them would be returning? What would happen without them?

One the sixth night since her last time seeing her friends, Hotaru rose after Quatre finally drifted to sleep, wrapped one of the blankets around herself, and went into the kitchen to find some solace. Idly, she thought, _they should just get it over with and make a flavor of ice cream called_Solace.

A sound outside—a loud sound, actually, a bump and a shout—called her attention away from the freezer. Hotaru automatically crouched a little, ready to pounce on anything that came through her door, or to run and get Quatre if it turned out to be something she couldn't handle.

The doorknob began to shake, but she'd locked it that night, and whoever attempted to get in had no luck that way. The muffled curse Hotaru heard sounded familiar, very familiar, but the familiarity in it forced her to disregard it as something born of the late night. After the curse there was silence . . .

. . . until the doorknob, and part of the door surrounding it, exploded inward with the force of the bullet ripping it apart. As Hotaru stumbled back, breathless with shock and fear, the door swung open to reveal a group of eight very familiar people indeed.

"Dude," said Duo, tossing his braid over his shoulder, "why the fuck was the door locked?!?"

End Chapter Fourteen.


	16. Chapter 15

**This is the first new chapter in… forever! New as of October, 2007! ENJOY!**

**Author's Notes:** Holy CRAP, it's been forever since I did anything on this one. I'm sorry for everyone who's been waiting for the continuation. I've been forcing myself to concentrate on my original writing, and it got me published! A short story in an anthology, I'm so proud! At any rate, I've come to a block in my original stuff, so I thought I'd work on some fanfiction. _Mended Wing_ has been on the back burner for a long, long time, and I replotted everything from last chapter onward. It isn't anything like the original plan! I really hope everyone enjoys this, despite the excruciatingly long wait. I hope the long time between chapters doesn't mean my writing style makes the story awkward…. Also, Duo's "feat" with the rice is based on something that actually happened to me, only it was a green sprinkle off a cookie.

**Thankies:** Marika Webster, as always. Fuuzaki-chan, who is in COLLEGE, OMGs! Has it really been that long? Ichiban, the wonderful restaurant that keeps me full of sushi. YUM. I find it a little sad that my thankies list has dwindled….

**Disclaimers:** You know the drill. Not mine, never have been, never will be.

**Please Note:** From now on, I will be posting all new chapters of any fanfiction on my website, sailorcelestial dot com, before posting them here at fanfiction dot net.

**Mended Wing Chapter Fifteen**

Duo thought the entire thing would be entirely fucking hilarious if it wasn't, of course, for Usagi being dead, and now Mamoru as well. A cruel, unusual sort of irony hung around the situation like the shroud of a ghost, a blonde, blue-eyed ghost made of light and sorrow. Not to mention the fact that only a few short hours ago he'd been huddling like a coward behind a Bible. Without his braid! What a cruel, cruel irony indeed.

He said none of this aloud for fear Wufei or Quatre might feel the need to correct him on his use of the word 'irony.'

Well, Wufei, anyway. Quatre still sulked at the end of the couch, looking for all the world like the child caught red-handed. Hand in the cookie jar. Or rather, some other unseemly place. Hotaru, on the other hand, sat at the other end of the couch without a blush to show for her behavior. She acted like none of them knew what had been going on! How could they not, with Quatre shuffling naked save for a sheet out of her bedroom? Poor Trowa. The banged one had yet to say anything, not that Duo actually expected he would. So far Trowa had left Quatre and Hotaru alone, something he had to be given credit for. Even Duo would have plucked out the eyes of his unfaithful lover, if he'd had one.

Which brought him back to Usagi, her death, and things that had never been.

"What is taking them so long?" Wufei stood from his seat by the window, arms crossed over his blue tank top. Geez, Duo never thought he'd be so happy to see that damn tank top. Or Hiiro's spandex, for that matter.

"Give them time. It's late."

"I realize that, Trowa. But—"

The door flew open at that moment, that unerring sense of timing belonging to all Senshi kicking in. Haruka rushed through first, green eyes wild. Behind her came Michiru, with more composure, with Setsuna in her arms, who looked around with darting eyes. The masculine woman took one look at the assembled pilots, four of them back to normal, and growled out a demand. "Spill. Now."

"Yeah, hi, we're fine, thanks for asking," Duo said, putting out his hands palms up. "You really have to work on your social skills, ya know?"

Haruka glared.

"Actually," Ami said, sighing a little, "Duo has a point. We could use something to eat before we settle in and let them tell the whole story."

"Right, I'm starving," Minako piped in, rising to go check out Hotaru's kitchen, mainly the fridge. As the blonde opened the fridge door, Makoto gave a tired smile and pushed herself up as well.

"I'll cook, if Rei-chan will help, and we can sit around talking over food." She turned to the priestess, who nodded and stood, going with Makoto to start pulling out pots, pans and ingredients. Minako tried to help, but ended up scorching one of Hotaru's pans and being chased out by a spatula-wielding Makoto. Despite Haruka's protests, Michiru joined in the preparations, leaving Setsuna with the uncomfortable Hiiro.

They could almost forget. Laughing as Trowa joined them, teasing Minako for her lack of cooking skill, amazed when Trowa actually turned out to be good in the kitchen, the Senshi and the pilots could almost forget what really brought them all together. Even Duo, with Usagi always in the back of his mind, got into the swing of things as he helped put an extender in the table and set enough places for all the gathered participants. Within an hour and a half of coming back, Makoto began to set dishes on the table, whapping eager hands when they made attempts to taste too soon.

"Okay, everyone sit, and we'll get this party started." The Amazonian woman waved a regal hand over the table, her spatula now a scepter as she surveyed her domain. This time, she didn't whap Duo's hand when he reached for a piece of bread. He was just glad she made a lot of different types of things so he could eat without trying to figure out what he was eating.

"Why did you have all this food around, Hotaru-chan?" Minako asked even as she took some noodles for herself. "You didn't have to feed Usagi-chan all that much." The sorrowful silence Duo expected didn't come, only a few amused chuckles.

"Well, I was saving it just for something like this, actually," the girl admitted, snatching up a piece of meat with her chopsticks. "I started collecting all this a while ago, wanting to have a big dinner get together with all of the Senshi. We're so busy with our lives, we don't always get to just be friends."

At that point, the silence did come. Not a silence for overwhelming grief, one or reflection for the preventable loss of good friends. Duo thought of Hotaru's words and realized how many parallels there were between her life and his, or any of the lives of the Senshi and the lives of the pilots.

"The same goes for us," he offered, poking at his food with the fork Hotaru so generously provided. "We fought together in two wars. We were bound together by Usagi-chan. You'd think that would be enough to form an unbreakable bond of friendship, wouldn't you?" He looked up at the people watching him, including three of the four closest friends he would ever have in his life, which he now knew wasn't saying a whole lot about his life. "Somehow, though, we lost touch. Despite Quatre trying not to let that happen."

Several pairs of eyes flickered toward the sulky blonde, who did his best to look as though he didn't hear. Duo could tell the difference, though, through the little mannerisms that hadn't changed despite how his personality had. The Winner heir always developed a wrinkle on his forehead, vertically between his eyes, when something bothered him. That wrinkle was present as Quatre poked his own food. Wufei cleared his throat, and everyone looked away.

"We'll do better when we get home," Trowa offered. He'd apparently decided when in Tokyo, and deftly picking up a piece of sushi that fell apart the moment he had it over his plate. Minako beamed.

"That one was one of mine. They usually fall apart faster!"

Laughter burst from Duo's nose in the form of a snort. Unfortunately, he'd just shoved a forkful of rice in his mouth, and in a motion he preferred not to think too hard on, a grain of rice forced itself up his nose and across the table. It landed directly in front of Quatre's plate, and despite the blonde's glare of utter disgust, a round of hysterical laughter erupted from all other inhabitants of the table. Minako laughed so hard she nearly fell from her seat, and Rei and Makoto leaned into each other for support. The only Senshi not laughing was Michiru, too sophisticated to laugh at such base humor. She did crack a smile, though. Even Wufei and Hiiro couldn't help themselves. Trowa tried very hard not to laugh, but lost the battle very quickly, and tried to reach across the table to touch Quatre's hand.

The blonde growled and slapped his hand away. As the laughter died, everyone watched as Quatre stood for the table with a violent shove to his plate. Without giving any of them a second glare, he stalked away, out the door of the apartment. This time, Hotaru didn't follow him. Instead, she calmly took a piece of bread, buttered it, and tore a piece off for consumption.

"Aren't you going to follow him?" Duo asked. Seemed to him Quatre shouldn't be wandering around Tokyo by himself, especially not in such a mood.

"Why? He knows his way around, and it isn't my place."

"But…." Minako cut off her question, looking to Trowa. Duo knew what was in her head, because he thought the same. No one wanted to step on Trowa's heart any more than it had already been smashed.

"I'm not the one he really wants," Hotaru replied to the unspoken question. "I'm just a safe substitute. He won't really listen to me, just use me as shelter. Now that Trowa's back, Quatre is his responsibility."

"Quatre doesn't remember anything about how close we are, and he doesn't want to be reminded."

"Doesn't mean he shouldn't be reminded." She leveled a sharp glare at Trowa, then the rest of them. Duo looked back down at his plate, seeing in her eyes that she'd made up her mind.

There were a few moments of silence in which everyone waited to see if Hotaru would say anything else, or if Trowa would take her up on her challenge. Neither happened, and after it became apparent neither would, Haruka finally cleared her throat and spoke.

"So, why don't the four of you tell us what happened. How did you get your memories back?"

Michiru followed her lover's question quickly with one of her own, the obvious one. "Did you get the Eye of Hecate?"

In answer to that one, his remaining three companions all looked to Duo. He sighed, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the talisman he'd carried with him all the way from the Moon. Set on the table between all the half-finished meals of the pilots and Senshi, the Eye glimmered as though winking at them with a secret hidden deep within.

It was a black stone, perfectly black like jet or obsidian, set into an oval frame of silver that surrounded the flattened disk of stone, curling out from one side, creating the stylized image of an eye such as from ancient Egypt. Duo recognized the design as being very similar to that of the Eye of Horus, and thought it strange as Horus was most often associated with the sun, not the moon. Still, over millennia, who knew how fact could warp into mythology?

"This thing had better be worth all the shit we went through to get it," he told them. "Cavernous ravines, rivers of freaking fire, disintegrating rope bridges. You name the ancient movie cliché, we had to go through it."

"Tests of courage," Trowa clarified, "and of intelligence."

"A test of honor," Wufei amended, sitting straighter with the memory of it, and their performances.

"A test of truth," murmured Hiiro, staring at what remained of his noodles. Duo picked back up after he left off.

"See, those were the first four tests. The last one was tough, something we all had to do together." He paused, thinking back, remembering the hands of his partners reaching for him, and his surety one moment that he would die, and the next knowing with absolute certainty he would live. He couldn't die, he still had things to do, too many. The memory of it, what he shared with them, swelled in him until he couldn't speak of it anymore. So he had to continue on another avenue of thought. "Anyway, when we finished, the last door opened, the Eye was inside in the hands of another one of those creepy Hecate statues. She spoke to us. It was really weird, like she knew exactly who we were, like she could see us."

"She congratulated us on completing the tests, showing all the traits any allies of the Moon Kingdom would need." Trowa smiled a little. Duo knew why. Hecate, even as a statue, reminded him a lot of Usagi. "Then she said she could restore what we'd lost, because we would need it to complete our mission."

"Yep," Duo said, leaning back in his chair. "Next thing we knew, we were ourselves again."

"But we remember." Again Hiiro's voice was low, barely audible. In the pause after Duo's hesitation, though, everyone heard. "We remember being those other people. We remember the new future, the one without Crystal Tokyo. Our families."

Duo winced. He still didn't have a family in this other Timeline, but Father Maxwell and Sister Helen were still alive, at least. He hadn't thought at all about the others, what lives they may have led, if they had family or not. Wufei, was his wife still alive? He could remember Hiiro's other self talking about twin sisters, Aiko and Biko. What about Trowa, who knew now his real name was Triton Bloom? What were the Blooms like? Wasn't that Katherine's last name?

"What were the tests like," Haruka asked, leaning forward eagerly. Makoto leaned forward as well, and though the rest restrained themselves, all wore intense expressions of interest. Duo glanced at Trowa, who turned to Wufei.

"It isn't something we can tell," Wufei finally replied, voice softer than usual. Duo sighed internally, knowing now the others felt the same as he did. "It's an experience beyond anything we could ever hope to encounter again."

"Yeah," Duo agreed, smiling a little, knowing he looked apologetic. "It's something spiritual, it really is, something that changed us. I don't know, it just doesn't seem right to share the details." His eyes roamed over his fellow pilots, lingering on Hiiro a moment in concern. "It ties us together, and it's between the four of us."

Turning back to them, he could tell few of them understood. Rei nodded, the priestess with knowledge of spiritual things, and Hotaru, the girl who embodied Death. The rest looked frustrated. He could only shrug. How could he possibly relate something so powerful to those who hadn't seen it, been a part of it, felt it first hand? He couldn't. Not ever.

"Leave them alone," Rei said, standing from the table and taking her plate, as well as Ami's and moving into the kitchen. "We have more important things to worry about, like figuring out how to activate the Eye and save Usagi."

* * *

He couldn't believe them! Acting like morons, LAUGHING at him! Had they forgotten their dead friends? Honestly, weren't they supposed to be all depressed and shit, especially after the death of Mamoru? Quatre didn't even care, but the image of Mamoru impaled and bleeding was burned onto his corneas. How could they be laughing? Did their friends' deaths mean so little? People didn't laugh or have fun after death, unless they really hated the person. It wasn't right.

Quatre imagined that's how his family would react if he died, by laughing and having a party. He pondered on this supposed other Quatre Winner, whose father might be dead but had at least loved his son. That Quatre also had sisters who cared for him. Why, he wondered between the beats of his footsteps on the pavement. The Senshi spoke a great deal about the place called Crystal Tokyo and how without it the future was very different. It seemed impossible to him that the existence of a single place could affect his future so completely as to make certain his family loved him.

Stopping in front of the Crown, he almost went in just to have somewhere to sit, until he remembered Hotaru knew where to look for him there. Not that there was any sign of anyone following him. Part of him was grateful, and part of him desperately wanted Hotaru to come after him.

_Please Allah, can't I have someone who cares for me, even if it's only a little?_

He turned away from the inviting light of the Crown back to the gray streets and sky. Thunder rumbled through the city, causing Quatre to automatically cross his arms in preparation for the promised deluge. He wiped at his eyes, paying little attention to where his feet took him until he finally noticed bits of greenery in his vision. Blinking, he looked around him to find himself in a park. As the rain started falling, he settled down on a bench, soaked and uncaring. Maybe he'd catch pneumonia and die.

_Call this attempt number six._

* * *

Makoto watched Ami turn the Eye over again in her hands. Glasses perched on her nose, mouth set in a serious line, Ami embodied the spirit of intelligence that came from her Mercurian heritage. Makoto never had figured out how the Senshi all ended up in physical bodies identical to their bodies from the Silver Millennium. None of them looked much like their parents of this lifetime, save perhaps Rei, whose original Martian looks helped her blend into Japan's society. Ami once had mused aloud that Japan's spiritual heritage might be heavily influenced by the long-ago Martian temples. Makoto wondered if perhaps there might be some physical influence as well.

"It's like the Silver Crystal, as far as I can tell." Ami sighed, sliding a thumb over the black stone. "The question is, does it activate the same way?"

"You mean is there only a certain person who can use it?" Makoto felt her stomach sink, knowing the likelihood that the person would end up being Princess Serenity, especially as Hecate was one of her ancestors and the creator of the Eye.

"It certainly is a strong possibility," said Ami, shaking her head as she passed the silver-rimmed stone on to Rei at the priestess' request.

"It's also the strongest possibility only Usagi can use it, right?" Rei frowned, gazing around at all of them. "What if she is the only one? What will we do then?"

"How's killing ourselves sound?" Duo made his joke in a flat tone, with a wan smile. "That's about all we'll fucking be able to do, right?" Anger, pain, everything in between, it all roiled in his voice as he stood from the table finally. The dishes and platters of food had long been cleared away to make room for their discussion on magical objects and the people who use them.

"Shut up, Maxwell," Wufei growled from his end of the table. His hair fell from his ponytail about his face. He looked tired, but they all did, Makoto supposed. How else could they feel when their one chance for saving the future seemed to be a bust?

Over in a corner, Minako and Trowa were immersed in what looked to be a very serious conversation, probably about Quatre. Where ever the blonde went off to, he'd given the Senshi and princess of love a chance to confer with his lover. Hiiro stood at the nearest window, arms crossed as he stared out at the rain, God only knew going on in his head. Haruka sat at the table with Ami, Rei, Makoto and Wufei while Michiru sat with Setsuna. Hotaru had retreated to her bedroom for a nap, and no one had the heart to ask her to stay.

Makoto turned back to Ami as the blue-haired woman typed away on the Mercury computer. She brought up the page containing the Hecate myth, sharing it with everyone who gathered around, all trying to see the tiny screen.

"This says the Eye of Hecate will grant one miracle to one person of pure heart. Normally, that would mean Usagi-chan, as she's the purest of all of us."

"So we are screwed," Duo snapped at Ami. She glared back at him.

"I didn't say that. Just because Usagi-chan is _usually_the purest of heart, doesn't mean anything. This doesn't specify the person has to be of the Lunar royal family. Which means anyone pure of heart can use it."

"So that means any of us could?" Makoto asked. That didn't seem right, not to mention she hadn't felt an inkling of power in the thing when she held it, which seemed to indicate she was not the one.

"No, not just anyone, it still has to be someone pure of heart," Ami explained as she took her glasses off and sighed. "Which isn't entirely clear in meaning, I know. None of us are anywhere near as pure as Usagi-chan, and we've all held it with no results."

Rei cleared her throat. "Pure of heart doesn't necessarily mean purely good," she said softly. "That's why Queen Isis hid it from the Kingdom's enemies."

"Let's not jump to conclusions here." Haruka spoke up for the first time in a while, shaking her head. "We can't know why she hid the Eye. The Dark Kingdom and other enemies wouldn't have to be able to use the Eye to want to take it, just getting it out of the Queen's hands would be enough to assure their victory." As she said the last, Makoto leaned forward.

"Obviously not, considering the Eye was long lost by the time of Queen Serenity, and she still defeated the Dark Kingdom with only the Silver Crystal."

"No, she didn't. Sailorvenus killed Beryl, Endymion's traitorous guard were already dead. The Queen only had Metaria left to get rid of, and with only the Silver Crystal, just sealing Metaria away killed her. How would things be different if Serenity-sama had had the Eye with her as well?"

With that, the Senshi all went silent. Makoto tried to imagine it, an existence where the Silver Millennium had never fallen, where perhaps she and the rest all still lived somewhere in the universe as their original selves, the princesses of their respective planets and protectors not of Tsukino Usagi, Sailormoon, but of Princess Serenity, heir to the Moon Kingdom. She couldn't see it, not with all she knew. Scattered memories reminded her that the Moon Kingdom lay in dust, abandoned by Princess Serenity in favor of her new kingdom, shared with her prince.

At last, Rei spoke again. "I think it's safe to assume she hid it out of fear someone purely evil could use it for their own ends. Otherwise, why not just put it in the palace vault? Or keep it on the Queen's person? Why lock it away in a vault and go through all that trouble to make sure only someone with courage, honor and love could reach it?"

Makoto saw Wufei blink, watching the priestess. "That would make sense. No one with evil intentions could have defeated those trials. Only a group of people with the best of intentions, to protect and serve."

"Chosen representatives of the Sailor Senshi," Rei said, nodding with a gleam in her eyes that dared Haruka to challenge her conviction again. The older woman just smiled and shrugged, admitting defeat without speaking. "So it doesn't have to be someone with pure goodness in their heart. It could be someone purely evil, or purely angry. Even someone purely depressed."

With an intuitive flash, Makoto understood, and wished she hadn't. Of course Rei was right, but there was no way in hell they would ever convince him to activate the Eye. "Rei-chan, he won't do it, he doesn't care."

"We have to make him care."

"But then that would defeat the purpose, he wouldn't be pure anymore!"

Do cut in, waving his hand between the two arguing women. "Wait, wait, just who are we talking about here?"

Makoto sighed and sat back, waving at Rei to continue. The black-haired woman turned her intense gaze on the braided pilot.

"Quatre-san. He's the only one who can activate the Eye of Hecate."

End Chapter Fifteen


	17. Chapter 16

**Author's Notes:** I'm back again! This time, I hope for good, at least until _Mended Wing_ and my Inuyasha fic _Âmes Qui Dorment_ are done. Fanfiction has suffered for more than five years; I think original writing can wait a little bit while I play catch up.

From this point onward I predict the plot should move along pretty fast, but things could get a bit sticky. The new plot has the potential to get out of control, and MW could end up being a monster of a fic. I think I might end up going for much longer chapters in exchange for not having too many chapters. Anyways, hope everyone's enjoying themselves so far! The big question for this chapter: how do you convince a depressed person that a world where most of the people he knows are dead is better? Let's find out, shall we?

**Recommended Links:** (of course), my forum, Elizabeth Donald's website (for vampire fans), and Angelia Sparrow's website (for erotica lovers).

**Thankies: **Fuuzaki, apparently the only true constant in my life, even if we don't get to see each other much. Mavan, for beta reading chapter 15. There's some new people, too: incanhaspancake on LJ for helping turn my attention back to anime. Chris-Brad for being a generally cool person and great friend.

**Disclaimers:** Don't own 'em. Never will, unfortunately. Please no suing, I'm not getting paid to do this. I do it for pure enjoyment. Also, I've had no beta for this chapter. All mistakes are mine.

**Mended Wing**

Chapter Sixteen

By Sailorcelestial

The rest went home only after waking Hotaru to inform her of their revelation, and the fact that it was her responsibility, for some reason, to talk to Quatre. Sleep with a guy once or twice and suddenly a girl becomes his babysitter. This thought—and others of an equally unflattering nature, about both Quatre and her fellow Senshi—bounced around her mind as she sat awake waiting for the wayward one to make his way home. This assumed, of course, that Quatre would come back in only a few hours rather than a few days. Who knew with him?

Hotaru yawned. Never the healthiest person to begin with, the stress of the past few days had her seeking her bed earlier and rising later. Despite this, she still felt as though she hadn't slept more than a couple of hours. The dreams, the nightmares, kept her from truly resting, and filled her waking moments with dread.

Usagi, bullet-hole in her head.

Mamoru, bleeding from puncture wounds all over his body.

Chibiusa, screaming as she faded from existence. Though she hadn't seen this, her mind gleefully provided the images for her.

There were other images her mind supplied as well, images of a future without NeoQueen Serenity and King Endymion, without Crystal Tokyo and the peaceful influence on all kingdoms coming after it, without the Senshi kept immortal by the power of the Silver Crystal, useless without Serenity. All around her in the dreamscape of her sleep was blood and darkness, screams and the silence of death. Piercing all of it was the Silence, her own special brand of death, a warning to her of the impending need for Sailorsaturn.

_I don't want to do this. Please, Kami-sama, don't make me do this. _

Pain seared behind her eyes, forcing her to close them and bow her head. Not the first, this one wouldn't be the last, either. They always accompanied her visions. Perhaps if she had visions of any future, happy futures, there would be no pain, but as she only saw futures needing her personal touch, agony always came with them. Again, the burning behind her eyes and with it a blossom of flame, in which the Crystal Keep settled. The spire of crystal trembled amid the heat, then shattered violently. Shards from the home of the Crystal Tokyo royal family ripped through everything else in Hotaru's vision, destroying all that should exist there.

"Hotaru!"

Quatre's frantic voice and overly familiar—overly familiar? Really?—tone broke into the image and brought her back to the physical world. She blinked at him, forcing her eyes to see him clearly and not the face of Usagi overlaid on the burning Crystal Keep. His expression almost made her believe he was actually worried about her.

"There you are," she said, sighing a little as she uncurled from the couch to stand up. "What time is it?"

"A little after three in the morning." Quatre actually had enough grace to sound like a teenager caught sneaking in after a late night of illegal juvenile activities. "I fell asleep on a park bench. In the rain."

"Hoping you'll catch something horrible and die?" She knew it was cruel, but the deeper blush of shame coloring his face told her it was also true. "Quatre-san, if we didn't need you so badly, I'd tell you to buck up and deal with it."

She saw the frown cross his lips before she turned away from him, moving back toward the bedroom. He followed, as she knew he would, and her stomach clenched. She sat at her vanity, picking up her brush to start running it through her hair.

"What do you mean, you need me?"

"If you hadn't walked out on dinner, you'd already know the answer." The necessity of her malice didn't help her feel any better about it, especially because she could see his expression in the mirror now, as close to devastated as this version of Quatre could come. "The Eye of Hecate, Quatre-san. You're the only one capable of using it, the only one pure enough to activate its power."

He snorted, rolling his eyes. Hotaru continued her grooming as though none of this made the slightest bit of difference to her. "Me? Pure? Pure what, failure?"

"No, pure depression. It may not be what Queen Hecate intended, but it will have to do, especially because none of us are anywhere near the level of purity required to active the Eye." Hotaru lowered her eyes from his reflection, seeing the evidence of shame and anger mixed on his flushed face.

"Right, I'm purely screwed up, so I get to be the one to change everything I know as true? I don't think so, Hotaru."

"You shouldn't call me that." Setting her brush down on the table, she turned around in her seat to level an intense violet stare at him. "It isn't appropriate anymore. You should call me Hotaru-san."

The flush faded to stark white, and Quatre stepped back, only to stumble and land on the ornate bench at the foot of her bed. "Why, exactly, isn't it appropriate anymore, _Hotaru-san_?"

Pain threatened to cloud her sight again, and Hotaru lifted a hand to rub the place where her nose met her forehead between her eyes. She knew why, and she also knew Quatre knew, he just didn't want to admit it, to himself or anyone else. Even if she cared little about the proper order of things and the feelings of Trowa, Hotaru would still hate the knowing, almost hateful glares of Duo.

"Because you and I are not for each other, and you know it as well as I do." She cut a line in the air with one hand to stop his protest before it began. "You can lie to yourself, but everyone else is aware of the obvious. Whether you like it or not, you are called by Trowa-san. If your mind doesn't remember him, your soul does, and your heart. The only way you two can be together is if you help return the true timeline."

"What if I don't deserve it?" Quatre's straight back slumped suddenly, and his fists uncurled, showing Hotaru a vision of a defeated man. "What if I deserve to be miserable the rest of my life?"

_You don't Quatre-san, please believe me when I say you don't. _

"Still thinking only of yourself," she said instead, turning away from him, back to her reflection. "What of the others? You'd condemn them just to punish yourself?"

Quatre's bitter laugh sounded, though Hotaru didn't look at him in the mirror. She couldn't bear looking at him anymore.

"Condemn them? To what, Hotaru-_san_? To living good lives with the families they don't know in your supposedly better reality? What's so punishing about that?"

"Talk to them, for once." She couldn't keep the acid from her voice. He was just so tiring, constantly seeing the bad instead of the good, never thinking of the consequences of his attempts to punish and end himself. "Talk to them, find out what they want. You haven't had a single conversation with them since all this happened, and you know nothing about what they think or desire. Talk to them."

Rising from her vanity table, Hotaru ignored his stares as she went to the closet to retrieve the pillow and blankets Quatre had used along with her couch on the first few nights of his stay. She handed them to him without another word before heading to bed.

* * *

This time they met at Ami's home. No one wanted to show up unannounced at Hotaru's, and Usagi's body remained in the care of their resident doctor. Sitting around staring at each other, waiting to see if Hotaru and Quatre would even show, no one spoke of what would happen if they didn't, or what would happen to Usagi when she found out about Mamoru.

Haruka grew tired of the silence quickly. Not one to sit around and wait for anything, she couldn't keep herself still, instead pacing around Ami's tastefully simple living room. All whites and pale blues, with silver and glass tables, the décor offended only a few, but left Haruka with nothing to keep her mind occupied.

Only a few years ago she and Michiru had fought against this, this attachment to Usagi, attempts to protect her. The Moon Princess was not their charge. The Senshi of the outer solar system had a larger duty to the solar system itself, the remnants of the Silver Millennium. The Inner Court dealt with Princess Serenity, though they rarely kept her under control. All five of them meddled in affairs that were none of their business, and kept Haruka and Michiru from doing their jobs.

At least, that was how it seemed then. Now, of course, Haruka understood what they really protected when they stood beside Usagi. Not just a princess of a long dead kingdom, but their hope for the future.

_We've failed. Not just failed, but failed horribly. Our hope is dead, and the only chance to revive her is in the hands of a suicidal jackass._

Even as she paced, Haruka kept a mental inventory of everyone in the room and where they were. Michiru sat, as she always did lately, on the couch next to Setsuna to keep the older woman calm. None of them knew how Setsuna would change if Usagi were revived.

On her other side sat Ami, typing away on her computer. Not that Haruka thought the Mercury computer could tell them anything new. For all anyone knew, Ami could be playing Mercurian solitaire.

Makoto and Wufei sat in Ami's two arm chairs facing each other, deep in a conversation that sounded like strategies from various past battles. Currently Makoto set the scene for Wufei for their battle against Galaxia, one Haruka knew the Chinese man would have difficulty believing.

Minako sat on a bar stool at the counter separating the living area from the kitchen. The blonde Senshi was deep into writing something she hadn't decided to share with any of the rest yet. Haruka didn't dare interrupt, not wanting to find out if Minako wrote out her will.

Rei, Trowa and Duo all sat together on the floor near the door. Passing by them, Haruka heard Rei trying to explain the complicated religion of Shinto, one that couldn't really be understood without extensive study unless one was raised in the religion. This version of Duo tolerated the discussion with ten times more grace than the other version would have, and Trowa seemed to just be listening as an excuse not to have to speak.

Hiiro didn't even try to pretend. He merely stood at one of the windows, looking out at the busy Tokyo landscape. He shared nothing of his thoughts, and Haruka wasn't inclined to ask. She remembered what Hiiro, briefly emerging from Masurao's subconscious, had done to the kidnappers.

She ran a hand through her short hair, feeling a need to get out, to do something. Her nature dictated that she try to find their enemy and defeat them, not stand around waiting for a jackass to change his mind. What enemy, though? What did he look like, was it even a man? According to Masurao, the people who kidnapped him and Rei had a boss who hinted at knowing all about the changes in the future. But who was he, what did he want other than Usagi dead? There were no leads whatsoever to go on after the deaths of the Boss's thugs.

_We're all drowning here._

A knock on the door sent them all on edge. With luck it would be Hotaru and Quatre, but Haruka knew none of them wanted to dismiss the possibility of their mysterious enemy walking right up and requesting entrance. Stranger things had happened recently.

Ami went to the door, opened it a crack, then smiled and opened it all the way. To Haruka's relief, Hotaru and Quatre stepped through. Quatre didn't look happy, but then when did the little shit ever look happy these days? At least he was there. Ami steered him into the living room with everyone else, but Hotaru spoke first.

"Let's leave Quatre alone with his friends."

Haruka went with the rest outside, even if she didn't like it. She didn't trust Quatre to be what they needed. Then again, wasn't that Usagi's lesson? To trust more?

* * *

Duo glanced at Hiiro, then Wufei and Trowa after Quatre finished his explanation. It sounded more like an excuse, but Duo wanted to see what the others thought before offering his own opinion. Hiiro wore a deep frown matched only by Wufei's. Trowa, of course, didn't reveal anything; he never let anyone know what he was feeling, except perhaps his normal Quatre.

"How can you all want this?" The current Quatre asked them. "All of your lives are better now."

"I wouldn't call being a de-braided virgin _better_," Duo quipped. He hoped Quatre could hear his resentment in his voice. When the blonde just stared at him, Duo sighed. How to explain this so Quatre would understand? "Look, whether you can believe it or not, we all liked our lives well enough before, and we know there's a reason Usagi-chan's death changed everything."

The blonde blinked at him, and looked at the others. His face reflected shock and disbelief. Duo understood, he'd probably be in the same boat if it were him in Quatre's situation. He couldn't imagine skittish Father Duo understanding why setting things back to the way they were could be better. Nor Masurao or Triton.

"The way you are isn't meant to be," Wufei said, with much more compassion than Duo ever thought possible. Then again, Wufei had always seemed to respect Quatre more than any of them, for some reason he never would name. "It's wrong."

Quatre stared at Wufei, then glanced to the silent Hiiro and Duo could see the blonde trembling. "And it was wrong for the rest of you? Was… was it wrong for you two to have your families back?" He gestured vaguely in Hiiro and Trowa's direction, voice rising in pitch along with the desperation in it. "The future hasn't changed, you know. Just you. In our real time, your families still exist. You're asking me to help you kill them."

Hiiro made a sound before moving away, taking himself from the conversation. Not that he'd ever really been in it, Duo thought, but God, what was the memory of Aiko and Biko doing to him? "Not all of us," Duo said, watching Hiiro but talking to Quatre. "My family is dead or gone either way."

"Mine lives either way," Trowa echoed softly. "Just the difference between a circus family with only a daughter and a family with a daughter and son who settled down."

"What about you?" Quatre asked, staring Wufei in the eyes. "What are you asking me to get rid of?"

For a long time, Wufei was silent, until Duo thought he wouldn't answer. Finally, when he thought he should probably say something to lighten the thick air, Wufei spoke.

"My wife and children."

Wufei said nothing else, until Quatre asked, "A wife and children? Did you have them before?"

"No."

"It must be some marriage, if you're so willing to—"

"Do not presume anything about my marriage. It is mine, and what it is or isn't is none of your concern." Wufei's eyes blazed. "All you need to know is that I support the idea of you using the Eye of Hecate."

"So do I," said Hiiro from across the room.

"Me too." Trowa nodded.

Duo raised his hand. "Count me in. I just want Usagi-chan back, even if that means Hell."

What Quatre thought, or what he felt about all of them ganging up on him, Duo couldn't quite tell. Everything about his expression conveyed a sense of being lost, as though Quatre were the only one of them to feel that way. Maybe he was, at least to that degree. After all, the rest of them had the benefit of knowing both what they were losing and what they would gain.

At last, Quatre cursed lowly, his arms wrapped tight around his own torso. "Fine. I'll do it."

* * *

Standing in a bedroom with a dead body lying on the bed was not a comfortable experience, but Trowa had been through more uncomfortable experiences than he could remember. He'd also seen more dead bodies than he cared to think about.

_Yet, that's the life you're asking Quatre to give back._

A harder life, yes, but the right life, as strange and terrible as that might sound to an outsider. He knew, as did the rest of them, that this was the right thing to do even if it meant removing some people from existence. Even people they cared about. Sometimes his memories of both lives meshed together, but he was fairly certain he'd never seen two people who looked anything like his parents in the circus, only Katherine. Were they alive? Did they settle down as they'd done in his alternate life, and had Katherine run away?

He didn't know, but if this worked and they managed to find their way home, he could find out. If he wanted. He didn't know if he did.

Ami arrived, holding the Eye in hand. Taking a deep breath, Dr. Mizuno held the Eye out to Quatre and stood waiting for him to take it. Everyone held their breaths, Trowa noticed, as though none of them dared breathe lest Quatre change his mind.

Finally, he reached out for it, took it from Ami, and no sooner had the silver touched his palm than the stone began to glimmer more brightly than before.

Trowa heard a gasp, but he couldn't be certain whose it was as there were thirteen people crammed into the room. As Quatre's eyes widened, the glimmer pulsed to a gleam, then a glow and became brighter with every second until Quatre held a little ball of white fire.

_Who seeks?_

"Wh-What?" Quatre responded, but they all heard the voice.

_Who seeks?_

"Q-Quatre Raberba Winner."

Trowa felt certain his own eyes were as round as dinner plates, and he couldn't tell whether or not he was breathing. He had to be, right? He had to be breathing, or else he'd be passed out or dead.

_Quatre Raberba Winner. _The voice—sharp, inquisitive and very female—sounded contemplative. _Quatre Raberba Winner. You have come seeking._

"Yes."

_What is it you seek? Knowledge? To live forever? _

"A miracle."

_What sort of miracle does a boy misplaced in time seek?_

For a moment, Trowa thought Quatre might say something about her calling him a boy, but the moment passed and instead Quatre swallowed.

"Resurrection."

A pause. Perhaps he'd managed to surprise her. It hadn't taken long for Trowa to begin to think of that disembodied voice as "she" and "her." Even "Hecate," for that's who the voice belonged to, he was sure of that. He could almost see her; long black hair tied in the same buns Usagi wore. Was it a family hairstyle?

_Resurrection is quite the miracle, Quatre Raberba Winner. Not something to be done, or even requested, lightly._

"No, but she's important, I guess. She's part of your family. A descendent. The Moon Princess. That's what I've been told."

Now, he could see her! Trowa was sure of it, a faint outline of a woman growing from the light in Quatre's hand, which he never dropped but still held in front of him as though afraid the thing in it would bite.

She stood in miniature and looked exactly as he'd imagined, even resembled Usagi to some degree, though older and more mature. Trowa felt his foot as from a distance as it took a step closer to see her better. Unlike Usagi's sometimes, Hecate's forehead was bare of any markings, but then it would be if she were somehow not the intended Queen of the Moon. Ami had told them all what little information she was able to glean from the stories, and Hecate was more myth than anything else.

The figure moved, shocking Trowa and everyone else, but no one more than Quatre, who looked ready to drop the Eye on the ground if she so much as flickered. All she did, though, was look to the side, the bed, and Usagi's pale form.

_I see. She is of my bloodline, though not directly. Diana's offspring. Still my blood, however removed._

"Can you bring her back?" The whispered question did not fall from Quatre's lips, but from Rei's. Hecate's ghostly form turned away from Usagi's body to look directly at Rei. This was no trick, no computer program. Hecate could _hear_ them, all of them, and react.

_When I set out to create a talisman capable of performing a miracle, robbing Death of her proper due was not my intention._

"This is one death I do not want," Hotaru replied, and to Trowa's ears her voice sounded calm, sure. This young woman always sounded so sure.

_Indeed, Sailorsaturn. Well. I suppose if a miracle is asked for, I cannot refuse now. I will make no promises regarding the result, however. _

"We understand," Ami said with a lowered head. "Please try."

Discussion past that point was unnecessary; Queen Hecate turned from them back to Usagi's body, then grew and faded at the same time as she reached for her lone descendent. Was Usagi her descendent if not related through direct lines, but through a sister? Genetics, something Trowa had never studied. It didn't matter, because science could never explain or encapsulate what he witnessed or what he felt as Hecate absorbed the energy of Setsuna's time shield and dove into Usagi's body.

* * *

For a long time, she knew nothing.

Then she was a spark. Only that, nothing more. All she knew was herself, and herself was all that existed. If there were darkness and nothing all around the spark of herself, herself did not notice. Herself did not even know herself's name, if herself had one.

Then, without the warning of gradual awareness, she noticed something else. A light, a window, a door. Something other than herself. There were objects, people, places on the other side of that light, and somehow she knew she had once belonged there.

And she stopped thinking of herself as "herself" and became "she" and "her" and "I."

She spoke to the light, an experiment of being: _I am me._

_Yes,_ came an answer, entirely unexpected, _and you are more._

She didn't recognize the voice, but then she hadn't recognized her own, either. How was she, when she couldn't even be certain of her role in the void and nothing where she existed?

_I can help you with that,_ said the voice, and as it faded a spark detached from the far away light to float closer. She did not answer, and in time the spark became larger, then changed shape, until it became a person. A woman. _Usagi, Princess Serenity, I have come to help you home, if that is possible._

_Usagi?_ She tried on the name, slipped it on to see if it were comfortable, and it fit well enough. As did the other, _Princess Serenity._ Either would do, she supposed. Before them, she'd had no name at all.

_I am Hecate. Take my hand, and let us see if this is a miracle I can perform._

The woman's hand—Hecate's hand—was the most solid thing Usagi could remember seeing, and she reached for it before she understood she had a hand to reach with. On seeing her own limb, Usagi paused, stared at it for some time before she could bring herself to move again. Hecate didn't seem to mind, she simply stood, waiting. There could be no rushing certain things, and how could there be a rush when there was no time?

At last, Usagi moved her hand and touched her fingers to Hecate's palm. At first she felt only the reassuring cool firmness of another person's skin against hers, a feeling she hadn't known she'd missed until she felt it again.

Then a jolt, an electric shock, and her gasp was not the only one to fill the void space of nonexistence. Until now completely calm, Hecate stepped back, eyes wide. Or, she tried to step back. Her hand and Usagi's were now firmly stuck together, neither of them capable of pulling them apart.

_What's happening?_

_I believe this is the consequence of attempting to change Nature._

_Will we survive it?_

_I have no idea._

* * *

In the real world, Usagi's body heaved and arched, went limp, then heaved again while the room of onlookers covered eyes or mouths and hoped what was happening meant their miracle would succeed.

At last, she went limp for the last time, and slowly, her eyes opened.

"Usagi-chan?"

* * *

**Exrta Author's Note:** Well, this is what you've all been waiting for. I hope it lived up to the expectation, especially since I've kept you all waiting so long. I'm sorry for that, by the way.


	18. Chapter 17

**Author's Notes:** Extended Author's Notes after the chapter, this time.

**Thankies:** Fuu-chan, as always. Chris-Brad, and Jess, and incahaspancake on LJ for all just being awesome people. All of you reading this (all, what, four of you? I've lost so many readers because I'm a bad fanfic author).

**Disclaimers:** I don't own Sailormoon or Gundam Wing, I'm just playing in someone else's sandbox. It's all in fun, I swear! I'm not even getting paid for this!

**Mended Wing**

**Chapter 17**

Those first few minutes after Usagi opened her eyes were strange for so many reasons.

They all had become accustomed to seeing her pale and lifeless, even if her resurrection had been their goal. To even think someone could literally come back from the dead… well, it wasn't like it hadn't happened before, but this time was different, somehow. Probably because this time it had been a bullet to the head.

Once the strangeness of resurrection had passed, there was still the matter of how she looked. Not physically. Her skin regained color the moment she took her first breath, that wasn't it, and it wasn't her hair or anything else.

It was her eyes.

Rei could swear they were lighter. A lighter blue, edging toward grey.

And they were calm, so calm. And confused, but Rei supposed that wasn't all that strange, or it wouldn't be except for the uncanny calm in them. Something else, as well, something she couldn't place, but could notice all the same.

Usagi was changed. Exactly how, Rei didn't know yet, but she knew it was true. Even more because she could feel the difference in Usagi's spirit. It made her wonder if this were Usagi at all, or some other spirit brought to her body. What made it worse was the fact Usagi hadn't said a single word since awakening, when they all expected her to cry, to scream, to ask for Mamoru, any of which would have been Usagi, and understandable, and normal. But she did none of those, merely looked at all of them, with those confused, changed eyes, then rose and began to walk the room, picking things up and studying them.

_Can she talk? Is she having to relearn things?_ Rei thought this while watching Usagi pick up an alarm clock and peer at it as though it were the most intriguing thing she'd ever seen.

"Usagi-chan?" Ami finally spoke, going to the other woman to carefully take the clock from her. "Usagi-chan, do you know who I am?"

"U… sa… gi?" She formed the name one slow syllable at a time, considering it as ice settled in Rei's stomach. "Is that my name? Usagi-chan?"

From the expression on her face, Ami felt much the same as Rei, and a glance around the room showed similar expression of fear on the rest of the Senshi and the men. Somehow they had all expected Usagi to come back whole and herself. She always had before. But this was different, wasn't it? A bullet to the head was different than Silver Crystal energy depletion, and she'd been dead much longer. The bullet might have damaged her brain, and Hecate with her Eye was not the same as the Silver Crystal, though they might have been created by the same hand. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but none of them had thought about them until this moment, too late.

"Yes," Ami told her, "yes, Tsukino Usagi, that's you. Do you know my name?" Desperate hope in the doctor's voice.

Usagi considered her for a long time. "Ami-chan. You're Ami-chan." Even as relief broke over Ami's face and in Rei's stomach, Usagi turned to look at the rest of them and ticked off their names as though from a grocery list. "Rei-chan, Makoto-chan, Minako-chan, Hotaru-chan, Haruka-san, Michiru-san, Setsuna-san, Hiiro-kun, Duo-kun, Wufei-kun, Quatre-kun, Trowa-kun." Her eyes drifted over them, her mouth slightly open as though another name wanted to emerge, but she couldn't find the proper face to affix it to.

Minako stood. "That's good, Usagi-chan, that's great. Guys, this room's kind of small, can we move somewhere bigger?"

Ami and Minako together steered Usagi from the bedroom that had been her death bower out to the hallway and then the living area to set her on the couch. Next to her, Setsuna, giggling, and no different than before.

Makoto must have been reading her mind. "Guys, this isn't right. Usagi-chan is back, but Setsuna-san isn't."

"Mamoru-san," Minako murmured, loud enough for Rei, Ami and Makoto to hear, but not loud enough to reach Usagi, who'd risen to explore the room. "Usagi-chan is back, but now Mamoru-san's gone. King Endymion, he's just as important to Crystal Tokyo and NeoQueen Serenity. Without him, she probably won't even want to rule. Who knows what future battles we haven't fought yet we could lose because Mamoru-san isn't here. And without Mamoru-san, there's no Chibiusa-chan, no heir."

No one else spoke as the weight of Minako's words and meaning fell on them. Even the men from the future couldn't speak. Rei glanced at Quatre, but she couldn't tell from a glance if he'd changed or not; his expression was neutral, cautious, and void of personality.

"So what do we do?" Ami finally asked, voice quiet. For the first time in a long time, Ami sounded unsure of herself.

"What _can_ we do?" That was Duo, arms crossed, brows drawn together in a way that drew a deep line between them. "If Endymion is just as much Crystal Tokyo as Serenity, the future hasn't changed much, if at all, and it's not like we can go there to find out. Setsuna-san couldn't take us to the future if her life depended on it. Mamoru-san's body, or what's left of it, is on the Moon, so really, what the hell can we do?"

"Could we—" Trowa began, but stopped when Quatre held out his hand.

In it, the Eye of Hecate. Black, dull. Even the shine of the silver looked as though a century of tarnish had time to cover it in only the few minutes since Usagi's resurrection. There could be no question that the artifact was as dead as any other chunk of rock, without magic or soul. It would be of no help to anyone, least of all the dead Mamoru.

Before anyone else could say a word, Usagi interrupted the silence. "I know you. I know all of you. I know your names and your histories as surely as I know the back of my hand, and yet I don't know even my own hand so well." She looked down at her hand, her expression a complex mixture of amusement and confusion, almost indulgent, as though the entire situation were some loved but unruly child that needed to be brought under control.

"What do you mean?" Duo asked.

Usagi replied without looking up from her hand. "I know you, yet I don't. I can name you, I can even tell you where we met and as much of your history as I ever knew, but it's like I know it from reading history books. I feel nothing for you. Any of you."

Duo paled. _Poor guy,_ Rei thought, _he looks like she used that hand to slap him_. Thinking about Duo's pain made it easier, somewhat, to ignore her own.

Usagi—clearly not the Usagi they knew—ran her hand over the back of one of Ami's reclining chairs, the one with Minako sitting in it, leaned forward to look over her shoulder. Usagi smiled at her, but kept moving. Her eyes drifted over each of them, not settling until she reached Rei, at which point she leaned forward and touched Rei's cheek. "You're Sailor Senshi." Her hand moved from Rei's cheek to Makoto's, then Ami's. "All of you. Remarkable. I only had the idea for the Senshi guardians a week ago."

"Hecate," Ami breathed, eyes wide. "No, it's impossible. Hecate couldn't have created the Sailor Senshi. Sailorpluto and Sailorsaturn existed long before Hecate even lived."

_I can't believe_ that's _the impossible thing while Usagi's talking as though she is Hecate!_

Usagi—or was it really Hecate?—lifted her grey-blue eyes to Ami. "No, there are no soldiers for Pluto or Saturn." Her eyes drifted to Setsuna on the couch, enthralled with her own fingernails. "Did you believe Setsuna has truly lived for all eternity? No, there are forces I can use, can mold. Each planet has its own power, and I thought to use that. Pluto and Saturn are unique among the planets, though, and more powerful." She paused, lifting a hand to her forehead. "Strange. I speak of the Senshi as things both existing now and not existing. I _know_ I haven't made them yet, but I also know Setsuna has long been Sailorpluto, and I know which planets each of you hail from, and not only because you bare the genetic marks of your planetary heritage."

Rei looked around the room and saw her feelings mirrored on the faces of all the others. No one knew what to say. Not a single one of them could think of a response. What were they supposed to say when their princess and future Queen has been resurrected from death only to be possessed by the personality of one of her ancestors?

_Gods, putting it that way makes it sound ridiculous._

"What about Mamoru-san?" Trust Minako to break the silence with something related to romance, but they couldn't expect anything else from the Senshi of love. Besides, it was an important question, one that stopped Usagi in a moment.

"Mamoru-san?" The name flowed sluggishly over Usagi's tongue, as though she couldn't quite force it out. "I… know this name." Rei watched as Usagi turned to all of them, could see her tagging them all in her mind, and coming up one short. ""Mamoru… Mamo-chan?" Her voice lost the confidence of Hecate. Rei saw the woman bleed away from Usagi's face along with the blood. "Mamo-chan, where is he?"

No one could find the words to tell her.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Wait, what is this? This is a painfully short chapter, I know.

The reason is... that I have to regretfully give up on Mended Wing, and on my Inuyasha fic, Ames Qui Dorment.

I don't want to. I've always wanted to finish both of these fics, and I've always said I would. That's been my plan up until recently, when I had to finally realize that it would never happen. There are many reasons for this.

The main reason is that, quite simply, I am a very, very different person now than I was when I began these fics. Can you all believe it's been ten years? I'm 31 years old. I was 20 or 21 when I first began really writing anime fanfiction, when I was in the main throes of my love for these fandoms, and when I created the original characters and the stories for these fics. I look back on my 21 year old self and I think, "what an idiot!" Gods, I was such an idiot back then, with so many immature and uninformed ideas about so much.

I am also a different writer now than I was then. If I were to start these stories now, they would in many ways be very different.

The person I am now can barely remember how 21 year old me wanted this story to go, and can only guess at what to do with it instead. But... I don't really want to anymore.

The 31 year old me still loves these anime, and appreciates the ideas, cultures, and friends they introduced me to, but cannot claim that they are still a part of my life. I stopped following the Inuyasha anime and manga; I have no idea if they ended, or how, and I'd like to know one day, but I don't need to know, and that tells me a lot. I haven't participated in Sailormoon or Gundam Wing fandom in years, and haven't written any new anime fanfic in nearly as long.

So this is it. This is what I had written for this chapter of Mended Wing, and it is the last I will post of the fully written story. There is no more. For those of you who also read AQD, I thought I had a portion of chapter 18 started, but if I did I can't find the file.

However, what I have done is written summaries of what I can remember of where both stories were going, and given some answers to questions I know people had, and posted them to my Livejournal account. If you're interested in knowing what the future would have had in store for Usagi, the Senshi, and the Gundam pilots, you can find it on my Livejournal, celestineangel (fanfiction DOT net still won't let me post links, I've always hated that). I'll find another way to put in the link, maybe in my profile.

My summary of important information and the end of AQD is in the same post.

Feel free to comment to ask questions if I fail to answer anything you want to know. There are no limits on the information I'll give; if I know it, if I remember it, I'll tell you. If you don't have an LJ account, you should be able to post anonymously.

If you don't want to know, if you're happy imagining the endings for yourselves, then you're free to do so, and not read that post. :)

I apologize, for all of you who still read every chapter when it's posted and review with such wonderful praise, you have been so dedicated, and I have let you down. I really wanted to finish, but I can't pretend anymore that I am capable, when I'm not.

So please forgive me, and remember these stories fondly.

As for this account, it will remain, and all the fics that are on it will remain. I may upload more of my Harry Potter fic, or I may not.

Again, I am so sorry. Forgive me.


End file.
